Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men or any particular Marvel properties. I wish there was another Marvel fighting game on consoles, just full of characters from all over. The last one I played that was really good was Marvel: Rise of the Imperfects on PS2.

I loved that game. Injustice was a sweet, sweet game full of DC characters. I feel like the same thing with Marvel could be just as great.

Chapter 3: Lessons To Learn

I felt like I was sitting in the lion's den when I was called to Miss Frost's office. Telepathically of course, because fuck intercoms! After two times in my head, she could find me by singling out my thoughts.

I could now see why Eddie had a problem with Ruth allegedly using telepathy on him. She'd never done it to me, as far as I knew, but Miss Frost's forays into my head had been annoying.

In the middle of my class with Miss Pryde, I got the message. Apparently, she did too only moments after I did. Her face twisted into surprise and then into a scowl, and I'm certain that most of it wasn't directed at me.

"Bellamy, go ahead," She said, getting me to nod and stand up from my seat. I tried not to look her way, because I felt guilty now. It was my fault she had to interact with her least favorite person at the Institute. Worse yet, I was in trouble, so she probably got a brainful about that.

Regardless, that left me to shuffle on off to the headmistress' office, the location of which Miss Frost was nice enough to beam into my head, probably so I didn't hold her up.

When I got there, I noticed that Julian Keller was already there, sitting in a seat in front of her desk, both of them smiling. If the fix hadn't been in already, that was all I needed to know that I was completely screwed.

They both noticed me at that point and Julian's smile twisted into a glower aimed at yours truly. Miss Frost's previously pleasant expression morphed into one of complete professionalism.

How would I feel like I could possibly come out on top in this situation? I didn't see a path to victory here. The most I could do was damage control, and I didn't trust that I could even do that much.

I sank into the cushy chair, less than three feet away from the guy that I'd gotten the better of the other day thanks to a timely sucker punch. The tension was so thick Mr. Logan could cut it with his claws.

Man, I wish Mr. Logan were there instead. He wouldn't have cared at all if I'd gotten into a fight… probably. I don't know. I was just going off of what I had to work with assumption-wise.

"Now then," Miss Frost said, sitting down at her desk, folding her fingers in front of her face, "I hope you recall what you're here for, Mister Marcher."

"I'm here because I blasted him halfway across the courtyard," I said, taking a small measure of satisfaction out of watching Keller's face turn red, "Where's that Santo guy? Didn't I shoot him too?"

I was once again going with the strategy of using no filter over my mouth. If she asked me a question, she would get an answer, raw and from the source. No filler.

"Let's settle one dispute at a time, shall we?" Frost said, "Now, why did this happen?"

I noticed she was looking between the two of us, and felt a bit of an opportunity open up. If she was asking that and she wasn't patronizing me in doing so, that meant that she was patronizing Julian. If she hadn't read his mind to confirm anything yet, I wouldn't have believed it.

I slowly and robotically turned my entire body Julian's way, prompting him to go first. I would have loved to hear what he would tell her. What possible lie could you give a telepath? My perspective would be taken with a grain of salt whether I went first or second, at least in my own mind, because she'd already probably seen it. Hopefully that street would go both ways.

I was sorely disappointed with the results.

Julian looked between me and Miss Frost before sighing, his head lowered in a way that didn't fit with the proud, confrontational personality I'd pegged him to have from the last few times we'd met, "I'm sorry, Miss Frost. It was just something that got out of hand. It won't happen again."

I was floored. Oh, that slick son of a bitch. He didn't even bother trying to give his side, instead launching into the next portion of the student punishment process; acceptance.

That was so good. I should have done that from the start myself. I'd neglected to because I figured I didn't have a chance at smoothing things over the conventional way. Thinking about straight-up taking accountability for the incident would have involved thinking about the next words coming out of my mouth.

Miss Frost seemed pleased. Good for her. Good for him.

"I would hope not," She said before turning over to me, "Mister Marcher, you should know better than to use your powers to attack a fellow student. But boys will be boys. There was no real harm done, and this is your first offense."

I was still so out of it, I didn't even bother feeling slighted at the fact that Julian had used his powers on me first was swept aside.

"I know you are both training to be X-Men, but this is a school," Frost asserted sternly, "No more childish squabbles, from either of you. I expect better out of students in this program. You're to be held to a higher standard," She did actually level a look of culpability onto Julian, which did make me feel somewhat better, "Now do the two of you have anything to say to each other?"

Julian and I looked at each other, as though wondering which one of us was going to take the first step. If he was waiting on me, he would be sitting there for a while, "I'm not apologizing," I eventually said.

And this was what having no filter between your brain and your mouth did for you. Why couldn't I make this easy on myself? To her credit, Miss Frost was giving me every chance to. She had been since we spoke yesterday. I was making everything much more difficult than it had to be.

I continued before I could get an earful about maturity and whatever snide comment she would make to chastise me, "I'm not apologizing because I'm not sorry, and I don't think I was wrong. I feel like I had some kind of right to react, I was just wrong in how I went about it. Clearly, seeing as how we're all sitting here," I gestured to our surroundings, "I don't expect or want one either. I just want to bury the hatchet, so we can move on."

Julian gave me an odd look but acquiesced to this. Both of us being okay with it was enough for Miss Frost, who figured that any apology between the two of us would have just been grandstanding. In other words, just a waste of time, air, and false feelings, "You know, I do believe something positive has come out of this after all. I've thought of an effective exercise that all of the squads can use for training, thanks to the two of you."

"Uh… you're welcome?" I said, not knowing quite how to respond to that.

"You should go now, both of you," Miss Frost said, entirely unamused, "Mister Keller, I'll see you shortly for squad training. Mister Marcher…"

"See you when I see you?" I ventured again, trying to finish her thought for her. Kind of hard when I wasn't a telepath.

"Yes, well, hopefully under much more positive circumstances the next time."

XxX

For the most part, I was fine with how that little get-together ended. I didn't get kicked out of school, kicked off of my squad, or even so much as any detention time. It was better than I'd actually hoped for. I'd even gotten out with time to spare to walk with Ruth from her last class of the day.

Things had a habit of following me, even though I'd planned on leaving them behind though. This time, that manifested itself in the form of Julian flying over me and coming to a landing in the middle of my path.

"Hey," He said, getting me to stop, "Hold on. I'm not finished yet."

Come to think of it, neither was I, "Why didn't you leave me to get burned just now?" He could have. It wouldn't even have been very hard to do. I'd already dug half of my own grave during the meeting.

Julian scoffed as if he were offended, "I don't need Miss Frost to fight my battles for me. You sucker punched me. Anytime you want to go…" He trailed off, a cocky grin slowly growing on his face, "You have no idea what you'd be getting yourself into."

"Good to know," I said in return, "I've always got enough of a charge in me for a fight. It's why I came to this school in the first place." I walked past Julian and stopped, holding up my index finger for him to see, the tip of it burning bright like a cigarette lighter, "Just so you know, if anything around me glows green anytime soon, I'm shooting first and asking questions later."

XxX

That settled things with Julian, at least for the time being. However, that still left the other offended party from the other day's standoff. I hadn't gotten a dressing down for that one, probably because it had been included, but that didn't mean I wasn't responsible for what I did to someone else.

It wasn't hard to find Santo, even in a school with as many various body-types as Xavier's.

There were other kids at his table. Brian, the kid with dreads from before, a girl with silver skin, orange hair, and a nice smile, another girl dressed head-to-toe in black-colored garb that I would have expected to see in the Middle East. An interesting mix of people.

Figuring that talking first wouldn't get me anywhere. I stormed up to the table before anyone could really notice me, and I set the box and plastic bag down right in front of Santo. He looked over at me, instead of up because he was so damn big, and when he saw me, the smile on his face from being around his friends disappeared.

"You!" He said, standing up from his seat, his chair falling over and sliding halfway across the room from the motion. I backed away several steps hands up.

"Whoa-whoa! Calm down. It's a peace offering," I said, trying to get a word in edgewise before round two started in the cafeteria, "My beef was with Keller, not you. And we cleaned the slate. Not sure how long it'll stay that way but, eh…" The deepening scowl on his face told me that I wasn't helping my case, "Anyway, that was him, not you. I shot you too, so I want to try and make things right."

"If things are cool with Julian, where is he?"

"I dunno. That's why I'm doing this now, so I don't start something else while I'm apologizing to you, because he sure didn't get one," I told the lot of them, mostly focused on Santo, "Then again, he started it. You were there, but I didn't get any psychic slaps from you."

Santo seemed more bewildered than angry at this point, either because I was actually apologizing, or because I wasn't afraid when he walked me down, "So you brought me a pizza and a greeting card?"

I shrugged haplessly, "I asked around," Thank you, Ruthie. You and your telepathy digging up people's favorite things, "If you don't want 'em, I'll take 'em back and do something else. I just thought-," I reached past him for the box, only for his hand to cover it.

"…Let me think about it for a sec," He said, his massive rocky hand descending slowly down onto the lid, "What kind of pizza?"

"Meat Lovers. Check out what's in the bag too," I told him, relaxing as he did as I asked. His eyes lit up. Score.

"12 month subscription to the WWE Network?" He basically shouted, the wrestling fan in him coming out, "That's like… almost $100 a year I don't have to pay!"

"About $120, actually," I corrected. Thank goodness I had a connection that came through for me back home. There was no way I was dropping a Benjamin on that. All I paid for was the pizza, "But whatever. The point is, are we cool?"

Santo nodded and began to reach for a pizza before a silver hand pressed the box shut again, "Not so fast," A girl with silver skin and red hair said, ignoring Santo's whine at not getting his food, "The other day, why were you so quick to shoot?"

Okay, this was definitely his team if that question really needed to be asked. The whole, 'He may be a dick, but he's our dick,' kind of deal.

"Because he was picking with me, and my powers aren't good for self-control."

"What are you talking about?"

I gave a grandiose, sweeping gesture to the room we were in. More specifically, to the light fixtures, "I absorb light, and it wants to be used. All the energy I have at any given time of the day relates to how much time I spend in it. So basically, I'm hopped up on light juice all the time. Get enough of it, and it's like a 24-7 caffeine buzz. All thanks to the power of the sun."

"Sunny D?" Santo chimed in. I couldn't tell if he was messing with me or not.

"No, I-," I paused and thought about the taste of the orange juice brand, "…Huh, now I really want Sunny D."

And with everyone's eyes on me, likely wondering what in the world was wrong with me, I wandered off to go and see if there was any orange juice in stock somewhere. If not, I really had to get to town soon so I could go shopping properly. There was a list of things I needed, of which my own personal supply of Sunny D became a part.

A rumor started shortly thereafter that my powers affected my short-term attention span. I never came up with the evidence to debunk this theory entirely.

XxX

The next team session we had, the Paladins were one man down. That was because Miss Pryde decided that I wasn't fit to participate in that day's exercises. I had been right on the money when I figured that she would be mad after finding out about what I did.

"You can't do this to me," I said, looking down at my teammates' progress from the observation room alongside my advisor, "This is terrible."

Miss Pryde didn't even bother looking at me, as I pressed myself against the glass, so sorely wishing I could phase through it like she could, "It's supposed to be. This is a punishment for being an irresponsible brat. Emma Frost might have let you off with a warning, but I expect better out of my squad."

Apparently the Hellions played fast and loose with the rules and expectations of students at school. They got into trouble constantly, so much so that it was rare when there wasn't something happening around them. For whatever reason, that led to a certain amount of leniency allowed to them that others didn't get. It was either because they were really good, because they were the students of the headmistress, or both.

The rest of us actually got disciplined whenever something went wrong. Miss Pryde had let me have it when I saw her again for squad practice. Then she made me sit on the sidelines while the others ran the day's simulation. It was horrible. I'd been looking forward to working off some energy and blowing off some steam in the Danger Room all day, and I couldn't shut up about it.

"You're torturing me!" I said. I was fidgeting, physically fidgeting, because I wasn't down there myself doing my part, "Can't you just make me run some gauntlet of bad guys that I can't beat? Let 'em all whoop my ass or something? I'd rather do that than just stand here and watch!"

Miss Pryde didn't flinch, "Of course you would. That's exactly what you want. It's not a punishment if you're okay with doing it, Bellamy."

"A regular session would be bad enough. You're letting them fight actual villains today," And indeed, they had their hands full with a crazy six-armed woman with white hair named Spiral. She was teleporting all over the place and using magic to kick them around, "You never said anything about planning this before. You're only doing this because I started that fight with the Hellions."

"Do you really think I'd be that vindictive?"

"If I say yes, will you hold me out for another session?"

"Who says it was just supposed to be this one? I didn't tell you how many sessions I planned on keeping you out for."

The glass in the observation area must have been sturdy, because she didn't stop me when I started softly banging my head against it. It wasn't just that I wasn't getting any action to use my powers on that was affecting me so badly. I went dead silent as I kept my eyes peeled to the goings-on in the Danger Room. All I could do was watch and see how the others handled themselves.

It was bad.

Eddie was the most mobile of the three on my team, easily. He'd taken it upon himself to try and fly in close to distract Spiral since he was the one who came the closest to being able to keep up with her. Anything he did was in an effort to buy enough time for Hisako to get there and try her luck. It was never enough though, and Spiral would teleport away before our heaviest-hitter could get to her.

If I had been down there… I'm not saying we would have won, but we would have had a better chance.

The gears turned in my head as to how a combination of the four of us would be inifintely better than three.

Ruth could try and use her powers to determine what Spiral would try next. Instead of Eddie taking a beating just trying to keep Spiral in one place, he could do a fly-by and cut her off, just long enough for me to get a shot in on her from wherever I was. Then Hisako could sweep in to smash her.

As things stood right now, Hisako was split between hanging back to try and watch out for Ruth, and trying to break away long enough to help Eddie.

Miss Pryde had no qualms about digging into me about what was obviously already eating at me, "You know, when you were put on this squad, it made things so much better as a whole. Hisako and Eddie have to get near their targets to do anything, and Ruth's telepathy isn't advanced enough for her to disable enemies from afar with it. At least not yet."

Me though, I liked to consider myself a utility player because my powers weren't just based on me shooting things. I could also enhance my body processes by fueling them with the light I absorbed. But in the grand scheme of things, I was our long-range guy first and foremost.

It was really evident how much we needed that at the moment.

"Your squad could really use you out there right now, Bellamy," She continued to say to me, "Do you get it now? When you act irresponsibly, it's not just you that's affected most of the time. It's all of them. You have to think more about what you're doing, why you're doing it, and how it will affect others. For the X-Men, that doesn't just go for the teams we take on missions, it's mutantkind as a whole. Everything we do reflects on the entire species."

"Is this how it was before I got here?"

"…Yes," Miss Pryde said quietly, "I needed you to see this. You took responsibility for what you did to Julian and Santo. That's a good start. It means you accept responsibility. Now you need to understand responsibility as well. The things you do aren't just about you, even when you do them alone."

I didn't say anything back. I just watched until the end. It was all I could do.

Eventually, Eddie had been battered around one too many times and couldn't readily take flight again. That left Hisako at her mercy. Her armor protected her from anything that Spiral could do for the most part, but it didn't protect Ruth. There were only so many angles you could cover when your enemy was a magical teleporter.

"I hate this," I said, the palms of my hands were glowing as I pressed them against the glass. I could feel them warming up against the contrast of the cold surface.

She separated the two of them and moved in on the weaker link to try and whittle the team down to one. Holograms or not, everything in there still hurt for real and did actual damage.

"I know," Miss Pryde said, putting a hand on my shoulder, "End simulation."

With those two words, the battlefield landscape my teammates had been fighting on turned to the lifeless metal of the bare Danger Room. I didn't even want to walk down there with her. I felt so awful about not being there.

Yes, we likely still would have lost somehow, but we would have all went through it together.

Eddie moved around on the ground slowly, gingerly picking himself up, "Ugh," He was unsteady as he reached his feet, "Well that was just like old times, wasn't it? And I don't mean that in a good way, either."

"Sometimes, one or more of your team will be out of commission. It'll still be up to the rest of you to keep going," Miss Pryde explained to the others to try and smooth over any ill feelings from the doomed combat simulation, "Granted, this was done because of what Sol did the other day, but there's still a lesson to be taken from it on your behalf."

"Can any of our lessons not be painful?" Eddie quipped again as Hisako and Ruth also got up from the ground.

XxX

After practice, I decided that the least I could do was tell them all why they had to suffer through a Danger Room session without me. It was just in case they didn't know already. I knew Ruth did, but that didn't necessarily account for the others.

We all headed out to the town the Institute was in for a little down time before curfew. Salem Center was a small, quaint place that was fine enough with mutants that it wasn't a big deal for the most part that the school was situated there. Of course, there were a good share of anti-mutant bigots, but that was just a reason that you were almost never allowed to leave the institute by yourself as a student.

A little cafe wound up being our destination as we sat and I explained the course of events that led to my getting into trouble.

Hisako tried to look angry, but a smile peeked through even as she tried to admonish me, "Bellamy, you can't go around picking fights with the other squads," She said, her stern tone betrayed by her expression, "...No matter how much of a dick one of them happens to be."

"Okay, first of all, language," I said, getting an amused snort from the Japanese girl, "Second of all, is he really that bad?"

"Can you spell superiority complex?" She replied, "I'm pretty sure there's a 'Keller' in there somewhere."

"Wait, so you guys aren't pissed?" I asked, unsure of my standing with the only three people I could actually call friends so far.

Ruth had been sitting next to me quietly, taking sips of her milkshake. She shrugged her shoulders, so I couldn't tell one way or another how she was feeling.

Eddie leaned back and rubbed his sore ribs he'd aggravated by stretching, "Ah, I'm not mad. Trust me, our sessions used to go way worse than that last one before we had you on the team," He commented before a goofy grin spread across his face, "I just wish I could have been there to see you clean Julian Keller's clock. I can just imagine the look on his face."

"The guy's a jerk to everybody. Even teachers, sometimes," Hisako said, taking a sip of her drink, "If you have 'decent' powers, he lays off a bit. Not much though. The guy's needed someone to knock him down a peg ever since I've been here. If I were you, I wouldn't have even apologized."

"I didn't really," My sheepish admission got a decent round of laughs from the table.

"Ha! So you really knocked Keller out?"

Our attention was turned to a waitress at the cafe, leaning over one of the booth chairs nearby in our direction. The electric blue hair and gauntlets were a familiar sight from the school. I didn't know students could have jobs. I recognized her as the girl that was usually there in same timeslot of Mr. Logan's hand-to-hand combat classes that I chose to go to.

I leaned back and turned around in our booth to get a good look at her, "I wouldn't say that. I rang his damn bell though," I said, showing her what I'd hoped was a grateful smile, "Thanks for the heads-up about him beforehand... err-," I was awful with names.

She took it in stride though, "Noriko," She informed me, "Noriko Ashida. Anyone willing to take a beatdown from Mr. Logan and put Julian Keller on his ass can't be that bad of a guy."

"Wow, I'm actually getting some love for flattening somebody," I said as Hisako and Eddie scooted over to make some room for our fellow student, "Maybe I should have done it sooner?"

Noriko's eyes seemed to light up as she probably thought about what it had looked like. She shook her head and let out a chuckle, "Even David thought it was great. He tried to hide it and act all uptight and responsible, but I know he liked hearing about it."

Hisako leered my way, and I could feel a remark coming on, "Huh Well, it looks like you've got a few fans on the New Mutants squad. You guys want him?"

"Well if you're offering..."

Eddie scoffed at that, "Hell no. Bel's ours," He declared, "Today made it abundantly clear just how much we actually need him if we're gonna put any kind of dent in the squad rankings."

Noriko rolled her eyes and turned back my way, "Fair enough. We've got a full team already, even if you do have some firepower behind you. So, what's your story?"

It was the first time that anyone had really asked since I'd been there. No one really cared to know, which was well enough because there wasn't much to tell, "Don't really have one," I said, "There isn't some big, tragic reason why I'm here. Compared to some of the stuff I've heard about, even the part about me getting attacked isn't that bad."

"You're getting along pretty well, the run-in with the Hellions aside," Hisako said, waving a fry around in the air before she popped it into her mouth, "But they rub pretty much everyone the wrong way anyway."

Ruth had gone silent for quite some time, but none of us had really noticed because she hadn't been talking much before we'd gotten to the cafe. She re-announced her presence with authority.

She tensed up, as if she had been asleep and had just woken up and let out an ear-splitting scream that got everyone's attention. The milkshake flew out of her grasp and spilled across the table. Noriko was luckily out of the splash zone, while Hisako armored up and kept it from getting on her. Eddie and I were splattered with it.

"Arrgh! What the hell, Ruth?" Eddie shouted at her as he tried to wipe the mess off of himself. I hopped up and provided enough room for her to wiggle out of our booth and take off outside.

"What's her problem?" Noriko asked, frowning at the mess she would likely have to clean up later.

"Damn, man, she's so weird," Eddie said, grabbing as many napkins as he could to try and deal with the mess, "She's just... how can we work with her? She's like our scout, but we can barely even understand her when she tells us anything."

I looked down at the mess on my own shirt and sighed, "I guess learning how to work together is part of what we need to figure out as a team?"

Our dynamic had always been kind of weird. From our sessions, it was clear that until I came along, Hisako was used to doing the lion's share of the dirty work. Eddie would help when and where he could, but his power made him very specialized.

Ruth couldn't really fight at all. That had to leave the others who had to in her place somewhat resentful. I guess I just hadn't been around long enough for it to rub off on me.

"I'll go get her," I said, grabbing some napkins to start wiping off my own shirt as I headed for the door, "Be back in a sec."

I don't know how I found her. When I got outside, there was no sign of her. I just started walking down the sidewalk until there was no more road left to follow. Instead, I wound up heading through the woods of a riverside park.

It wasn't far. Just far enough to be inconvenient if you didn't know where you were going.

She was sitting at a bench that would have given her a look at the water... if she could see, of course.

Maybe she wanted me to find her?

Maybe it wasn't even that specific? Maybe she just wanted someone, anyone, to look for her, to see what was wrong?

Either way, I was the one that came.

I plopped down next to her on the bench and waited for her to say something. It took a while. Long enough that the sky was nice and orange-colored by the time she did.

"Sorry."

"It's okay," I told her, touching at the huge stain on my clothes, "Nothing a load of laundry can't fix. So, you want to tell me what that was back there? Did you see something from the future?"

"No. Yes. She had a vision," Ruth told me, wringing her hands fitfully in her lap, "She saw..." She started to say before cutting herself off, "Bellamy works hard and does his best, but it will not be enough. No, it won't. He will try, but it will be more than he can handle."

She saw something about me? Okay then, "What are you talking about? What's going to happen?"

Ruth put her finger on my heart, "Overload." My heart skipped a double beat at that. So it would happen eventually, "She sees ugly things. Nothing good. Never anything good. Yes, it is why no one wants her around. Even Armor and Wing."

"You really saw me overloaded?" I asked quietly, stunned at the realization. What was there to say to that? She couldn't even tell me when it happened, where, and under what circumstances, "Jesus, Ruth," I said as she shivered once more, "Do you ever... try to tell more people about this shit?" She silently shook her head, her knees still pulled up to her chest, "Like, another telepath? Like Frost, or something?" Another shake of her head, "Why?"

I didn't have any idea the specifics of what she was talking about. It was a running theme when it came to anything she told us in regards to her premonitions. It was as though she was incapable of explaining to us just what she'd seen, or never had enough information to truly let us be on the lookout for them. And she hated it too, that she had a power like that, one that was rarely ever even useful for her. The best I could guess was that it was like how you couldn't properly recall a dream you'd had the night before, despite the fact that you remembered it was something jarring.

The fact that her usual way of speaking was confusing enough on its own didn't help matters either.

Whatever this crap she saw was, she had to deal with it by herself more often than not.

"Look, I know it probably doesn't mean anything to you, but I'm always around," I told her, trying to be supportive. What did I really know about it? "I don't really sleep, so if you want to talk, if you get any of these stupid visions at four in the morning, it doesn't matter. Just let me know, and we'll sit down and figure it out together."

We'll sit down and figure it out together. Yeah right. As if I had any sort of chance to help her. It just sounded nice. I wanted her to feel better.

"If that happens... well, it won't be anytime soon," I tried to assure her. Honestly, I had no idea. For the most part, I felt fine. Full of a little more power than I usually would have because I didn't actively participate in our team practice, but nothing I hadn't felt before. I could get rid of it later, "And I want you around. You don't creep me out."

"Pardon? You are lying."

"Okay, yes, you do creep me out. But it's a good creep."

I punctuated that by throwing an arm over her shoulders, just as a little gesture for support. She balked at the contact at first, but just as quickly turned herself all the way into it an gave me a full-body hug. It caught me off-guard at first. Eventually I settled in and let it happen.

"We'll figure this whole thing out. Come on. I've still got to go back and pay."

We didn't make it back.

XxX

When I woke up, I couldn't move. There were bright lights shining on me. So bright, I couldn't even see.

I felt tired. That in of itself was scary. I hadn't been tired in forever. And I was in the light. That was bad. Depending on how long I had been out of it, I could have been close to overloading. Was this what Ruth had been talking about?

I started to stir, my entire body hurt and I let out a sharp yelp the moment I tried to wiggle around.

"It would be foolish to try and move," A man's voice told me in warning, "It could serve to be quite painful for you."

"What the fuck?" I didn't want to hear any of that. I wanted up. I wanted out. And that was what I was going to get... only I didn't, "Aaaaaagh..."

"I told you not to move, boy," The person behind the voice seemed to take a measure of delight at my pain, "It was very tedious, hooking you up to our machines. Every nerve ending we could reasonably attach a node to, all meant to harness your undeserved power."

The blinding lights were turned down, giving me sight of a team of technicians, working on equipment that was hooked to me by thousands of tiny wires sticking out of my arms, my face, my legs. Seemingly everywhere.

I screamed, first and foremost. I screamed when I realized that I felt all of it. The man speaking to me had been serious. They had attached me to whatever they had attached me to by the nerves of my body, "What is this? Where am I?"

"There's no need for you to know about that, mutant," The man speaking to me stood off, observing from the side. He had long, blond hair and dressed in a well-to-do suit with a frilled collar underneath, "All you need to know is that for once, your abilities will actually do some good for humankind."

The dark grin on his face promised nothing pleasant for me, either in the immediate or the distant future.

I was about to be indoctrinated into the mutant school of hard-knocks for the very first time, courtesy of the first real shit-bag in my time as a student or an X-Man I was given a personal introduction to - Donald Pierce.

So the other day, I annihilated my laptop with a kendo stick as a result of a very stressful series of days and a very bad time for it to not be working. Now, you may be asking, 'Why?' To which I respond, 'Why not?'

This is the kind of person I am.

Trust me, it was very satisfying at the time. And as a bonus, I had the money to replace it with something better. Didn't even lose any important files in the process either.

The lesson here is that sometimes, you've just got to break something fairly expensive to feel better about yourself. I mean, I wouldn't have gotten the same gratification stomping on a calculator or something like that. No, if you're looking to calm down by breaking an inanimate object, it's got to cost at least $100, or you're just wasting your time, making a mess, and destroying your own property for no reason.

And that was a public service announcement from Kenchi618.

Anyway, I hope you're enjoying this so far.

Kenchi out.