AN: Sup guys? Nothing much, I suppose, because you've resorted to reading this for entertainment. I'm doing fine, still recovering from my carpet burn war wounds. I'm also back to working even more full time than normal. My idiot co-worker who cut his finger just got fired for faking sick, so… I need some stress relief. This chapter is supposed to be the Spykecam episode, but Luke couldn't really get involved with that, so… Here's hoping. Disclaimer: I do not own any of Marvel's property nor do I own X-men Evolution. I used to own a can of Dr. Pepper. Now I own a can that used to have Dr. Pepper.

Chapter 14

No Apologies

The team was taking shifts watching over the med bay, waiting on their new houseguests to wake up. None of them were seriously injured from all the fighting in Denver, but all of them were pretty banged up. Xavier had searched over their memories and found that their perspective was completely false from what Mystique had told them, little to their surprise. The gall that woman had to confront them in the first place.

After Scott and Rouge had been rescued, the team had all been briefed that their principle, Mrs. Darkholme, was in fact Mystique. Big shock there, considering the woman had personally gone about collecting every member of the Brotherhood and always sided with them over the X-men. Rouge and Scott were told to rest, but when Mystique showed up at their doorstep, holding her hands up to show she came in peace, that put a wrench in their sleeping plans.

She said that when she got back to the Brotherhood home, that the place was trashed. Her team was gone, and it looked like a kidnapping. The kidnappers has left a calling card and she had it traced back to the exhibition center in Denver. She refused to come along, not that the X-men had offered seeing that she had just tried to kill Scott.

The professor then ordered the rescue, telling the team that Brotherhood or not, they would help mutants in need. Not everyone was happy with that, but they all went along with it. Once at the exhibition center, it was merely the challenge of finding a way in, as Kurt couldn't teleport, nor could Xavier sense anything inside.

Wolverine's solution was to cut was a way in through the roof. Jean kept the debris from falling while Kurt teleported everyone in through the now available space. They had found the absurdly powerful gamer mutant about to finish off Crystal, but Scott blasted him just in time. He then began to throw KI attacks at them like it was nothing. Luke had tried to respond in kind with a Hurricane Corkscrew move, hoping to humor his opponent with a legendary fighting move. It didn't turn out so well, as halfway through spinning his arm to generate a spinning gravitational force with his powers, the Street Fighter copycat nailed him with a Hadouken that sent him flying.

The attack wasn't in vain, as the leftover force from his Hurricane Corkscrew dispersed and disoriented the gamer. He must've felt like he was in a G-force rollercoaster ride. This gave Kurt all the time he needed to gather up the Brotherhood mutants. After that, everyone was signaled to fall back. They had no real stake in fighting the gamer mutant, after all.

When they arrived back home, only Rouge went off to her new room. Everyone else was still on edge about having the Brotherhood in the mansion, so they had all stayed suited up and ready to go.

So there they were, either standing in the hallway or in the med bay, pacing the floor and killing time. The shifts consisted of Jean, Luke and Kitty; then Scott, Kurt, and Evan. The one shift that was in the med bay would recline in the chairs, the shift in the hallway would nap on the floor. The X-men had gone through 3 hour long shifts so far, with no sign of the Brotherhood waking up any time soon.

"Jean, can't you just go inside their head and make them wake up? We're sitting on pins and needles here because these jerks don't have the decency to wake up and go home now that the party is over."

Jean shot down the idea, turning to her teammate saying "I'm not that good at telepathy yet to mess with someone's sleeping patterns. And besides that, these guys need the rest. Disturbing them now could cause them to upset injuries and make them even worse. We need to let them recover at their own pace before they leave."

"I just wish, like, they could do it at their own house. I'm not some babysitter." Kitty said, sitting on the side of Lance's bed.

Silence fell back on the room, with nothing to keep the three teens entertained as the time crept by. It was a dull job, but one that everyone agreed needed doing. That didn't mean they had to like it.

Luke looked around the med bay, going over all the injuries that everyone had gotten. Lance looked the worse off, with several burns on his face and the back of his head. Blob had whelps an a burn mark on his chest. Terrence had mild burns, a concussion, and a very sore jaw from the looks of it. Pietro's nose was shattered, but he was otherwise fine. Toad's back would be very sore from the giant purple bruise on it. And Amanda. She wasn't hurt at all except a small burn on her side. How'd she avoid taking as much damage from her teammates but still get knocked out?

If that guy was gonna finish her, then she must've done a lot of damage to him. But he must not have hit her with any KI attacks for her to be so unmarred. So what could've knocked her out for so long? And why was she twitching? Wait…

"She's waking up."

And sure enough, the sleeping beauty rose up from her bed, rubbing her eyes at the bright room. Eventually, her eyes adjusted to the lighting and she looked around, taking note of everyone in the room with her. All her teammates, who were still unconscious, and some of the X-geeks. They were hovering over her bed, ready to attack her at the slightest hint, or that's what it looked like from her view.

Jean picked up her train of thought and used her arms to ward off the other two, giving the blonde a little breathing room.

"What happened? You guys appeared out of no where and saved us, but why? How did you know we were there? What are you doing with us now?"

Luke pushed asides Jean's arm and stepped back in. He was Amanda's friend after all, not Jean. He should be the one who warded the other two off to give Amanda breathing room. Ignoring the redhead's rolling eyes, the only conscious guy in the room began to explain.

"Well, we saved you guys from that mutant in Denver and brought you back here. We saved you because it was the right thing to do. We were told by Mystique, who told us you were kidnapped. And now we're letting you guys rest because you're all beat up. I think that's everything you asked, in proper order too."

Luke was smiling at his accomplishment, but the girls ignored him. Crystal just looked over her teammates and saw how hurt they really were. Then she turned back to Luke and said "We weren't kidnapped. We were there trying to scout out a new mutant. Somebody called Mystique to warn her, but she was gone, so we went in her place. Big mistake."

Luke nodded, not telling her they already knew that from the Professor's earlier probe. He looked over to the other sleeping guys in the room and asked "How come you didn't get smashed on like they did? You got a tiny burn on your side and that was it. Did that guy take it easy on you or something?"

Crystal scoffed, before poking the burn mentioned and hissing at the pain it still brought. Then she turned back to her audience and decided to tell them the story. Why not? She was stuck in bed anyways because she didn't feel like moving at all.

"Well, first off, there were a lot more mutants in that arena asides us. We fought a bunch before we fought him."

"Really?" Luke questioned, thinking back on the arena. "It was empty asides you guys. There was a bunch of destroyed stuff, but I thought that was you guys. So how many are we talking about?"

"There were about 20 of them. It was some kind of promotion show for mutants trying to get jobs from Network clients. We stuck together and fought about half of them, but one of them nicked me with his light beams. I left him inside a crystal prison that would bounce everything back at him. Then when we were the last guys left, that gaming mutant shows up and starts wiping the floor with everyone. He took us down one at a time at his own leisure. I tried to box him in, but he broke free. Then when he actively attacked me, I made a wall, but it broke. From there, you guys showed up and know the rest."

"Hmm. So I guess you guys were tired before fighting him and that would put him at an advantage. But he had to fight people too, so… That guy was scary strong. I don't like it."

"He was such a nerd, though. He talked about a health bar and all that other junk. I thought he was gonna start preaching about some game whenever he talked."

"He seemed kinda nutty. But now you're awake. I assume you guys are gonna wanna go home?"

Crystal nodded, sliding her legs from beneath the sheets to the side of the bed. Luckily, she was still fully dressed or that would've been an embarrassing situation. "I'm ready to go, I guess. It'll be a long walk, so I better get started."

Luke held his hand out and tugged her onto her feet, where she swayed unsteadily as blood began to flow properly. "We're not that cruel. I'll drive you. I can return the favor for all the rides you've given me."

Crystal nodded and muttered a small thanks, but looked over to her friends. "What about them? All their vehicles are at the airport. They'll need a way to get them. I bet none of them have money to call a cab either."

Luke looked over to Terrence, before walking over to his bed. The spring muscled mutant's bag was beside it, so Luke rummaged through it, looking for something. When he found it, he pulled it out with a small jingling sound. "Gotcha! We'll drive to the airport and you can drive Terrence's truck home with you. How's that sound?"

Crystal smiled a little. "Fine. But why not Lance's jeep?"

Luke grinned at his friend before pointing out "Terrence will stroke when he finds out someone drove his truck besides him. He'd have a seizure when he finds out it was you. That, and I'm not digging through Lance's pockets to find his keys."

"Good point."

Kitty looked over Lance's still sleeping form before phasing her arm through the sheets and through him. She brought her hand back out with keys in hand. "Can I come too? We've got his keys right here after all. Why not get all the vehicles in one trip?"

Luke's face reddened slightly at the idea, which didn't go unnoticed by Crystal, who wasn't happy with the suggestion. "You wanna try and get three people on one motorcycle. Yeah, right."

Kitty looked at Luke for a moment, then turned back to the blonde, her face now red too. "I thought we were talking about the X-van or something. The Professor would let us borrow it, right?"

Jean stuck her nose in the conversation at this point, informing them all "The Professor hasn't even said you guys could go at all. He'll call a cab for the Brotherhood when they've all woken up, Luke. No need to rush her home."

Luke pouted, whining "That's no fun, Jean. These guys could be asleep for hours and this girl needs to go home and shower. No offense." he finished lamely, dodging an angry fist aimed for his shoulder.

"Plenty taken. But I'm with Luke. I want to leave now. You guys can't just keep me here."

Jean threw her hands up in the air in defeat, deigning silence to answer for her. If you're in such a hurry, then get out. What did she care if they all got grounded for not listening to her? She tried to warn them.

Kitty took note of how much Jean was against it and decided she wasn't gonna go after all. She had plans for this weekend and wasn't gonna risk being grounded with extra DR sessions for the chance to drive. "Yeah, I'll just let the guys catch a cab. Three people on a motorcycle seems kinda iffy anyways."

"I've done it before! But the other two weren't as big as you are." Luke looked at Amanda when he said this, his eyes twinkling with hidden mirth at the thinly veiled insult. He stepped out of the way of another fist, this one aimed for his face.

"You call me smelly then call me fat. I'm not even sure why you would offer me a ride at this point." The blonde huffed, standing with her arms crossed and her back to Luke. The guy just shrugged and walked out of the med bay doors, with Amanda following. The other X-men in the hall were dutifully watching their posts. The back of their own eyelids.

"I can't not take you home, you know. It's written somewhere in man law that you can't not take a girl up on her offer to take her home unless you haven't drunk enough for her to look good."

Crystal snorted at the stupid man law, before pointing out "You haven't even drunk anything, so I think that law is void."

Luke smirked to himself before turning a corner and saying "I don't need to drink something for you to look good."

A hand slipped over his shoulder and soon an arm rested over it as Crystal started leaning heavily on him, dragging him down closer to her height. "Look at you, trying to be all witty and charming. That wasn't a half-bad line. How long did you have to look on the internet to find that?"

Luke's grin came back two-fold, before answering "Two hours. But that's only because of all the dirty blonde jokes that kept popping up when I searched for 'best lines to hook up with a blonde girl.' It amazes me that there are people out there willing to even type some of that stuff and post it somewhere. Most of those jokes were just…wrong."

Amanda laughed at Luke's twitching eyebrow, before requesting he told her some of those jokes. "They can't be that bad."

Luke looked at her with a look that said 'yes they can', before saying "I'll tell you some of the nice ones. What's the difference between a blonde and the Titanic?"

Amanda knew where this joke was going and slapped Luke lightly on the shoulder. "You probably thought that was funny, didn't you?"

Luke laughed, still leading the girl towards the garage, and replied with "They wouldn't be jokes if they weren't funny. Then they would be facts."

Amanda faked a huff of her breath before pushing off of Luke and steadying herself to walk beside him. "You're so mean, you know? If I ever took you seriously, you would be the biggest jerk I've ever met. Even the meatheads at school are nicer than you are."

"I'll take that as a compliment. But to be honest, I would never say anything like this around you if you hadn't of started it when we first met. I probably wouldn't talk to you at all if you hadn't jerked me around like you did."

Amanda gave him a doubtful look, but he explain. "Seriously. If you hadn't, I would've naturally assumed that you were a stick. And I don't talk to sticks. Scott's a pretty close exception."

Before the two could continue the conversation any further, they arrived at the garage door. Logan opened it and stood there for a moment, looking at the two teens before giving a look that demanded an explanation.

"I'm taking her home. It's no big deal."

Logan looked back at the girl, before looking at Luke. "It's almost one in the morning. No way. Stop lying kid. There's no way she's letting you take her home. You can't even get to the doorstep."

Luke's face turned beet red while Amanda held back her laughter till it started to hurt her. Then she bellowed out laughing and couldn't stop. Luke calmed down and glared at the Canadian man who still hadn't left yet.

"I hate you so much, Logan. Really. You just have to ruin this for me. Thanks. Thanks a lot."

The man just grunted and walked off towards the kitchen. Amanda finally quit laughing and tugged on Luke's arm, letting him know it was time to go. Luke opened the door and walked over to the side of the garage that was his designated spot. He turned to his soon to be passenger and asked "Do you wanna drive?"

"Huh?" was her intelligent response.

"Do you wanna drive? I understand that some girls have a problem with having to hug all up on the guy in order to hang on or whatever. So if you were one of those girls…"

"Oh I see. You're trying to be slick! You want me to drive so you can feel me up and get away with it! That's clever. Yeah, I'll drive."

Luke's face was red again, but he never handed her the keys, he got on his bike and indicated what was left of the seat for her. "Never mind. Offer is no longer available to you."

The girl wordlessly got on the bike and the two left, driving to the airport. Neither wore helmets. Luke was too cool to wear one and Crystal didn't want helmet hair to go along with bed head. It was a long drive, as the airport was on the completely opposite side of Bayville than the mansion. It gave the two plenty of time to chat, but surprisingly, the two were quiet the entire drive. It was the longest the two had ever been near each other without saying a word.

When they got to the airport and found the massive truck that belonged to Terrence, Crystal slipped off the back of the bike, careful to avoid the exhaust pipe, and unlocked the truck. She grabbed the slip of paper that was tucked behind the windshield wiper, the bill from the airport for leaving a vehicle in the parking lot, and threw it inside the truck before looking back at Luke, who was waiting, but on what he didn't know.

"What are you waiting on? A thank you? A kiss good night? Go back home. I'm sure your professor is worried about you." There wasn't very much sass in her voice, nor any sense of humor in her eyes when she said this. Luke couldn't tell if she was just tired of his company or she was mad at him. But he knew he didn't want to leave.

"The professor knows exactly where I am. He's the most powerful telepath in the world and we're only a small town apart. I'm sure he can still sense me."

A 'hmph' was all the retort he got for that, so the two stared at each other in silence. Luke could've stared all night, but something wasn't right. She was upset about something. And it must've happened on the way to the airport because she was still happy back in the garage.

"Do you wanna talk about something? There's something bothering you, isn't there? Something that just now happened." Being concerned for someone else's feelings wasn't Luke's strong suit, as he had lived alone for several years, but the girl in front of him looked shaken. It wasn't like her.

"It doesn't matter anymore. It shouldn't matter anymore. We passed my dad on the way here. He found out about my powers last week and he saw my actual self. The rock me. We had a fight and he threw me out. All I've got is whatever's at the Brotherhood now. He kept the car too, so now I'm gonna drive Terrence's truck because my dick of a father can't stand his precious daughter anymore. And looking at me now, I think I can see why…" Bitterness was obvious in her voice when she started talking, but anger crept in too.

"I'm dressed like a superhero in tights riding around on a motorcycle with a guy I'm not even supposed to be friends with. I wear a special watch so people don't notice that I sparkle in sunlight. I grow rocks out of the ground and fight other people because I'm told to. Right now, I can't even stand myself… Go home Luke."

Silence was all that could be heard for a moment. It was a long moment, because the two people who were sharing it were both hurting. But the moment did pass and the silence was broken.

"Self pitying doesn't suit you. And even if it did, it doesn't help all that much. You need to go home, shower, and then we can sit down and talk about it."

A laugh came out of the girl, still bitter and it was mostly caused by her current disbelief in the guy right in front of her.

"You don't get it, do you? I don't wanna talk right now. I don't wanna talk ever. I want to just drop of the face of the earth right now. No magical conversation is gonna make me feel better and you aren't no near where good enough to think you can say otherwise. You don't know what it's like to be kicked out by your parent because you ran away from yours! Maybe you still think that the good guys can save the princess and live happily ever after. But I'm not your princess and you're not even the good guy. Leave me alone."

Luke hadn't got off his bike yet, but right then he got off of it and took the few steps from him to where Amanda was standing beside the driver's door to Terrence's truck. He stopped maybe a foot away, just enough distance for him to be close but not too close. He didn't want to get too close in case he accidentally started yelling.

"Shut up. If you don't want to talk to me, then just shut up. If you don't want to talk to the one person out here in the middle of the night to help you get over your pissy mood, then quit bitching me out about it. If this is how you wanna be about it, go talk to Toad for all I care. I don't want to try and relate to make you feel better, to tell you that I ran away from my mom because she was the damn devil and a sorry excuse for a living being. I'm not gonna pat your back and wipe your tears while I tell you about the little sister I left with that bitch. You think you're too hurt for that shit. Fine. I hope you stay that way. Let's see how that turns out for you."

With that, he turned away from the almost teary-eyed girl and got on his bike, revving it's motor and racing out of the airport parking lot, ignoring the girl he left behind that had told him to wait.

He made it back to the mansion and slipped into the garage quietly. Everyone should've been asleep by now, assuming the Brotherhood goons were still asleep. He'd be quiet for their sake, but he really wanted to go to the DR with his tennis ball. When Luke opened the garage door that connected to the mansion, he found that his least favorite instructor was still up and waiting on him, posted on the wall. The man pushed off of it and gave the air a sniff, before facing Luke directly.

"I told you that you wouldn't make it to the doorstep."

Luke wasn't in the proper state of mind to come up with a witty retort, nor was he in the mood to bother. He also wasn't in the mood to bite his tongue, like he should've.

"Fuck you, Logan."

The man grabbed onto Luke's shoulder when the teen tried to walk by, but he wasn't mad. He was surprisingly calm and had a bit of sincerity when he said "She'll come out of it, kid. Just give it time."

Luke jerked his shoulder out of the man's grip and stormed off, leaving the much older man to watch and shake his head.

The rest of the Brotherhood goons had woken up by morning and had sent Pietro to run to the airport and grab Lance's jeep for them to go home in. It was a simple event, with very little conversation on anybody's part. The Brotherhood didn't want to say anything to their rescuers and the X-men were too busy watching Logan's DR session with Luke to watch them leave. Storm escorted the boys to the door and when they left, she went to go see the session herself. If it had gotten the entire mansion's attention, it must've been impressive.

And oh it was. Logan had really outdone himself. The difficulty was something only Storm would deem safe for Scott or Wolverine himself, but Luke was doing well enough out there. There wasn't an objective so much as just survival and avoid being tagged by any of the machinery that had come to life for the session. Logan was in the room himself, making sure his student would be safe, but giving him free reign to demolish as much as he had the heart for.

Scott had questioned the Professor as to why exactly Luke and Logan were the only ones down there, but the Professor didn't really say. He just told them that Wolverine had personally requested it and that Luke hadn't disagreed.

Luke himself was on the room floor panting and soaked in sweat. The DR was like hell programmed into a computer program. His arms felt like they were on fire. Every move he made hurt but he wasn't quitting till Wolverine did. The man was battling his way through the machinery with his Adamantium claws without too much effort. Luke could hardly notice the man's stamina beginning to decline.

The gravity manipulating mutant wiped the sweat beads over his eyes, simultaneously making a force that would shatter the metal pellets fired from the turret. They weren't lethal of course, but they stung like fire. Reaching out his hand, he grabbed hold of a gyrating fan blade that was making its way towards him and used his powers to tug it off of its moving base. Using a motion that made him look like he was about to lasso something, he kept the blade spinning till he saw his target. A pair of tentacle claws had come out of the wall and were about to attack, only for one to be severed by the flying fan blade.

Luke panted as his arm dropped to his side, temporarily useless. The other tentacle was still there and it lunged at him. Luke jumped to the side, but was too slow and the claw caught him by the ankle and jerked him upside down. Groaning, Luke lifted himself up and grabbed a hold of the tentacle and began to add on weight as fast as he could. The claw tried to fling him about, but he kept a firm grip by attracting the metal to his palms. The weight eventually became to much for the claw and it creaked to the ground, struggling as it's mechanics broke down under the strain.

Luke would've cheered at his victory, but was too busy wheezing for air. He ended up being tackled to the side by Wolverine as another claw came out. The man raised his arm and gave a signal, cutting off the simulation. The man then tugged Luke to his feet, where the teen simply leaned over and clutched his knees, still panting for breath and adding being crushed by Logan to the list of injuries. And Logan weighed a lot for being such a short man.

"Hurry up and shower off. I don't wanna hear anything about you being late to school today just because you got some special attention."

Luke just glared at the man as he walked off, heading towards the control room. After catching his breath, he went to the locker rooms and changed out of his uniform and into some sweats and a t-shirt. He couldn't wait for the shower upstairs. Grabbing a towel to dry off his still wet forehead and face, he started to make his way to the elevator until he heard a voice in his head. And it certainly wasn't his conscious.

'Luke, I'd like for you to come to the control room. The team needs to discuss this morning's session and we've got a surprise for you.'

'Sure thing, Professor.' Luke thought back, but he hoped the telepath wasn't paying attention to what he was actually feeling. The man might've had a heart attack if he knew.

The control room was quiet when he entered, but everyone was standing around waiting on Wolverine to break down the session and explain what was going on. There was monitor set up to show video feed of what was happening out there. Right then the video was showing a less than appealing shot of Luke barely triumphing over two spinning fan blades.

Logan cleared his throat and started his explanation of the obvious. "Today's session showed everybody just how champ here works under pressure. He gets tired easy and if he uses his powers extensively, disables himself for a short period of time. There are a couple of reasons we had him run the session this morning. Anyone want to guess why?"

Jean spoke up and said "So we can know how to work with him better. If we know what he can and can't do, then our teamwork will be more definite."

"Textbook answer. Nice job, Red. There are two more reasons."

When no one answered as to what they may be, Logan provided the second one. "The second reason is that Luke pissed me off last night."

The team laughed at this, but Luke just glared at the man from his spot. He was sulking right now and Wolverine had the nerve to pick on him. Didn't he know he was supposed to let a teenager sulk in peace? The third reason was filled by Xavier himself.

"The last reason was to finally fully initiate our youngest student onto the team and to give him his codename. From now on, his field name will be Gyro. Welcome to the X-men."

The others (except Logan and Rouge, who never cheer) in the room cheered and congratulated the newly dubbed Gyro, who quit sulking enough to ask "So the entire time I've been here has just been a hazing period?"

The room just laughed and everyone began to talk to each other, with most of the conversations being steered towards Rouge, who had just witnessed the Danger Room for the first time. Luke hadn't ever apologized for being so harsh with her during the whole 'Kurt trapped in another dimension' thing, nor was he going to. Likewise, she wasn't on good terms with him either. Luke slipped out of the room unnoticed and went up to his own and took a shower.

The hot water was relaxing and dulled some of the pain he was still feeling. He finished up his hygiene routine and got dressed for school, grabbing a bowl of cereal before he left on his motorcycle, not saying a word to anyone.

School looked to be painful and boring for Luke today and the first bell sounded like the world just laughing at the teen's plight. He took his seat in English and was going to take his customary nap, but he found his arms were to sore to sleep on. How delightful. To kill time, he tried taking some notes. He dug his pencil out of his bag and held it between his fingers, but when he moved his arms to properly write, a muscle twitched and began to burn like someone had soaked it in gasoline and lit it on fire.

Luke dropped his pencil onto his desk with a clatter and clutched his arm, using his other hand to rub the burning spot. Amanda looked over at him and whispered "Are you okay?", but he ignored her and focused on what his teacher was saying, even if it was incredibly boring.

The class was soon over and Luke moved onto his next one, ignoring every attempt at conversation, which there weren't many. In the hall, he heard Evan talk about his Social project and some recorder. Luke just ignored the skater and went through his day in a sour mood.

The rest of the week was mostly the same, but Evan kept shoving his camera in everyone's face. He was outside playing his game with his tennis ball while Wolverine and Cyclops ran a practice on the drive. Why they couldn't of done it inside, he didn't know. He heard Evan tearing down the drive on his skateboard after them, catching it all on his video camera. He didn't pay them any mind but he turned around to see what was going on when Cyclops shouted "Heads up!"

A saw blade from the launcher had been deflected off of Wolverine's claws and sent arcing right towards the corner Luke was playing at. At the speed it was hurtling through the air, it would cut straight through him and leave one heck of a scar on the house behind him. There was hardly anytime to react, but Luke had instinctively thrown his hands up to shield himself, a futile gesture that was all the motion needed for his powers to work. A gravitational push slowed the saw blade as if it was cutting through molasses and gave Luke enough time to consciously move his hands in a gesture to smack the blade out of the air and into the ground, where it dug a small trench and finally stopped spinning.

His arm now tired and hurting, he retreated inside, not before flipping off everybody outside. The next incident of the week was when some Werecat look-a-like busted in the front yard and called out Wolverine. Luke had been inside when he heard the commotion but didn't bother to respond when the rest of the team did. He just put in his headphones and reread an old book he had.

On Friday, Luke had let his mood lighten up a little, making small talk with people now and then. The Professor invited him to see the school play, which Luke accepted only because Kitty had begged him to go. The play was alright, but Luke could tell that the Professor was pulling him out of his sour mood. And in a way, Luke was fine with that. He'd spent a week feeling bad and ignoring all his friends. It was time to get over it and go back to having a little fun.

Philadelphia was a nice and bustling city, with plenty of people and plenty of noise to cover up the conversation happening inside a small diner's reserved room. There were six people sitting at a table, but none of them were planning on eating. They didn't even have menus. They were there to discuss business.

"You've made it to our team and now it is time for us to see if you can cut it with us or not. Our first assignment is to patch up a security breach in Denver. I hear you are familiar with the situation?" A dark figure covered in an all black cloak had spoken this.

"Yeah. I was there competing when it happened. Team busted in through the roof and rescued some loser fighters before I could dispose of them myself. One of them hit me pretty hard with a red optic beam."

"Our team has encountered that group before. They belong to Xavier's School of Gifted Youngsters in Bayville. One former Network member is now residing there. The assignment doesn't call for us to eliminate them, but to offer them the chance to have their minds wiped of the incident. Apparently, Xavier has been tossing some weight around and the higher ups want this done carefully. But in case they don't cooperate, you five are to be there in force. For now, Gameboy here will need to be incorporated into our team strategies and training. This will take some time, but know that we will strike the Institute soon."

"How soon?" the Denver mutant, now named Gameboy, asked.

"Soon enough…"

AN: Ominous, huh? I really liked how this chapter turned out, even though I had such a hard time starting it off. It's got a little of everything. Humor, angst, romance, and a cliffhanger. But fret not, your dear author will continue to dole it all out with lots of love. And to be clear, Luke and Amanda aren't a pairing. Not yet and I'm not sure if ever. For now, think of them as you and that opposite gender friend that friend zoned you. You can flirt as much as you want, but you're still friend zoned. Let me know if you thought this wass any ood or if I need to just quit. I'd really like to know. Chapter title is a song off of Bad Meets Evil's album Hell: the Sequel. Last chapter shouldn't of needed me telling you where the reference is. . Alright, BigWillis, out!