Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men or Marvel. My dad really wants to see Black Panther, because that's his favorite superhero, which is cool. I'm going to take him. I'm glad to do it. I just really hope that he's cool during the movie.

I don't need him nudging me and making comments on every little thing like he usually does during cool movies. That's not how I do in the theaters. Save that shit for afterwards, I'm trying to immerse myself in the film, old man!

Chapter 21: Like Clockwork

My first real road trip wasn't to see some concert hundreds of miles away. It wasn't to go hang out at some distant beach. No, my first real road trip was done for the express purpose of not dying. Granted, that was a better reason for traveling hundreds of miles than any of the other ones I listed, but still, wasn't being a teenager supposed to be more fun?

Yet, there I stood, three o'clock in the morning at a Sheetz somewhere between San Diego and Los Angeles, pumping gas into a stolen van. How could I have gotten away with this?

Somehow, I bullshitted my way into getting the all clear from my parents. I convinced them that I had planned to take Laura and Saberwolf to L.A., and that I had told them about this, but they'd just forgotten. They were busy enough that they believed me.

Not a lie, just altering the truth a bit. I did have aims to take my friends to L.A. at some point. I had a list of thing to do during our vacation that proved it. It just wasn't supposed to happen a week into our stay.

Laura walked out of the store with a bag full of foods that were mostly horrible for us, "I thought you did not need to eat," She said as she approached our ride.

"I don't, but I do," I explained, reaching into one of the bags to grab some fries, "I don't need to eat to live, but if I want to build any decent kind of muscle, I should. And when I don't eat, I am weaker than normal."

At least, these were the things that Dr. McCoy told me. We'd had a few sessions where he went over how my body changed after my powers manifested, trying to make sense of how I worked now. These were some of the conclusions he had come to after taking some time to study me, so I was taking it as fact. It was information coming from a person way smarter than me.

She nodded in understanding, before looking at the van, "Does Saberwolf require food for when he wakes up?" She asked, referring to the third member of our merry band.

I spared half a glance at our ride and scoffed, "He's a robot, Laura."

At that point, Wolf roused to life and stood, peering out of the open window at me, "I am an A.I." he responded automatically in offense to what I had said.

Duh. He only said it every time I made that mistake until I remembered. I only did it to prove a point, "I knew you were awake, faker," I said, pointing at him through the window, "I had to drive the last two hours all by myself."

"You did not need me to drive. Operating a motor vehicle is a one-man job," Wolf defended.

I felt like pulling a Zoolander and throwing gas at him, but then I'd have to ride with a gas-smelling Saberwolf for a few hours. It would have been even worse on Laura. In the end, I just continued to give out, "I could have used the company. Driving is boring and I've been looking over my shoulder since we left San Diego."

Wolf stuck his head out of the window and I shoved it back in, lest he scare someone who saw him. It was three o'clock in the morning, yes, but still, "You did not ask Laura to stay awake with you," He said, "She was in the front seat, and she is a superior conversationalist to myself."

That wasn't a high bar to set. They both sucked at small talk as far as I was concerned, "So what? She drove us down here in the first place. She was probably exhausted."

Laura walked around to the passenger's side to put our stuff in the van while I kept pumping gas, "I told you, I do not easily tire."

"And yet you were knocked out for the last hour," I offered as a counterpoint, "Just because you can go a long time without sleep doesn't mean you should. And before you say anything, I don't count, because I can't."

Filling up didn't take too much longer, and before any of us knew it, we were back on the road headed for Los Angeles once more. There hadn't been any trouble since we left Kimura to burn back at the border with Mexico, but one never could be too careful, so I took to liberal use of speeding to get us there faster. I hadn't attracted any attention from California Highway Patrol yet, which would have gotten us all arrested for the stolen van, so small miracles.

"How are you doing all of this?" Laura asked me out of the blue, just as I was becoming too bored to pay attention to the lines on the road, "I do not understand."

I looked over at her for a moment to find her studying me with a curious expression, "What do you mean?"

"This entire predicament," Laura continued to explain, "You are afraid. I can hear your heart. I can smell your fear. But if those methods were not available to me, I would not be able to tell."

First, Megan asked me why I was never afraid. Now, Laura asked me why I never showed that I was afraid. Two different questions, but in essence, they weren't that far apart, "Do you want me to freak out? To let you know I'm scared?"

Laura busied herself with looking out the window at the highway, arms crossed as she relaxed back in her seat, "Most people would. It is... normal."

I almost flicked her in the head, until she noticed my hand move and stared at it, "That wasn't what I asked you. Stop deflecting," I noticed Laura did that a lot. Instead of answering the question you asked, she would try to shift the topic just enough to move you away from what she didn't want to talk about, "I asked you, do you want me to make it obvious I'm scared?"

"No," She answered, "But I have never seen you show fear. I do not believe anyone on the Paladins have either."

Bravado was preferable to obvious terror. The latter did nothing for anyone, "Laura, I haven't had the luxury to show people I'm scared. Every time something's happened that scared me to death, there was someone else there who was scared too."

When the Reavers kidnapped me and I had to escape, Ruth was with me, and she was terrified. Crying, alone, unable to see anything in any way due to how they had blocked off her powers. She had been helpless for the longest time before I got to her. I had to step up by default.

When the Danger Room tried to kill us all, there was a room full of scared teenagers who didn't know what was going on. I'd already had my big freakout about it, and I was the only one who'd knew enough to get everyone as organized as possible. Again, I had to step up by default.

Granted, that still left the Ord and Breakworld situations. But I guessed all of that stuff had happened so fast, there wasn't time to be afraid of how big the situations were.

But then there was this brush with the Facility. None of those things applied here. These were well-armed, organized people. Laura had her wits about her, at least enough to make plans and react, so I didn't have to bear the full burden of keeping things on-track. There were plenty of lulls to think about what was happening, what had happened, and how much danger we were in, so the gravity of the situation had long since sunken in for me.

Maybe I was used to it at this point? Maybe I felt confident enough in who I had with me that together we would all be fine? Maybe I had snapped some time ago and just didn't care anymore?

"I will say though," I told Laura, "As much as it sucks for you, it's actually nice to know you get scared too."

Laura seemed a bit irked at the fact I took some solace in her feeling fear, "It is not myself that I am afraid for."

I spared a look her way before continuing to focus on the road. After all I'd actually survived, I didn't feel like dying in something mundane like a highway accident,"Sometimes I think you feel like you don't deserve to live," I said offhandedly, only to get a small growl in return.

Clearly, I had hit a nerve, because she was angry enough that I could actually see it in her, "I am not suicidal."

It had been a long day. If Laura was upset, I was cranky enough to not back down because of it, "Stop putting words in my mouth. That's not what I said," Like I told her, that deflecting shit wasn't going to fly anymore, "…Do you actually feel like you don't deserve to live?"

People liked to use the clone thing to compare Laura and Mister Logan. That wasn't fair. While yes, there were some similarities, there were a lot of other differences. For instance, when there was something Mister Logan didn't want to talk about, he tried to scare you off. Laura preferred to just clam up and refuse to say anything.

There was a reason for that. Whenever she talked about herself, specifically, anything that had happened in the past, there was a lot of pain there. Pain she couldn't hide.

Laura kept her eyes down as she spoke, "I have done terrible things. Killed so many people," A shuddering breath passed through her as she went into more detail, "I killed my first teacher, Bellamy. I killed my own mother."

I had no place to relate. I couldn't even try. Even now, I was just some stupid kid from the bay. I hadn't even seen a hint of this kind of world until a little while ago, "Not by choice, I'm sure. From the remorse, I'd say not by order either."

There was a bit of silence between us all as the only sound for a while was the radio playing. Eventually, Laura let me in on a little more, "Do you remember the vial you destroyed when you found me?" She asked, "Kimura threatened me with it. She told me she would find where I had been staying and make me kill the people I stayed with. The same for everyone at school."

I did remember. It didn't look like much, but hell, for all I knew, destroying it could have been dumb, "What's in it? Some mind control chemical? That's creepy."

"It is a chemical with a very specific scent. Unmistakable," Laura said, "I am conditioned to go into a berserk rage when I smell it. I will not stop until I kill whatever has the scent on it, no matter who it is."

A method of control more forced than the version she had already been subjected to?

"They MK Ultra'ed you?" Why? Wasn't she already conditioned to follow all orders and kill to begin with? These were some seriously amoral fucks, "Your background is more fucked up than I thought. And I never thought it was good to begin with."

Laura didn't disagree. How could she have? She had seen how normal people were raised, how they lived, "I am not a person to them. I am a weapon. At best, I am considered the same as a new species of animal bred in a laboratory," She said, "And I have not acted much like a person until recent years."

The more I heard, the worse I felt for speaking to her when we first became a team. I tried to make her believe everything would be okay eventually. I tried to show her that I was equipped to help her get past it. I was not. Not in any way. What was I supposed to do?

Listen. That was what. Listen to what she had to say.

Who else did she ever talk to about any of this? Logan, maybe? And how much even then? Because he didn't need to be told most of it. He was privy to the gist of it. He understood how Laura was treated, and could relate without getting the dirty details because of his own experiences. So the things she said to me went unsaid to him. They didn't need to talk about it.

I couldn't picture most of it. In my mind's eye, I had a very limited view of what she was telling me. So she had to explain, had to go into detail, had to delve deeper than she did with Logan. She had to actually talk about it to try and make me see, when she never had to before.

So I listened. Took things in from her perspective. I couldn't judge her the way other people probably felt they could have. This part of my being an asshole helped. Because I had no connection to anything she had ever done, I didn't really care that she'd killed. I never watched her do it. She hadn't hurt me. She hadn't hurt anyone I knew. She was my only connection to everything in her own life, and she was largely a positive one, so I would take her side.

Maybe that made me a fool? Maybe if someone knew this, they would see me as self-centered? Maybe they would hear this and wonder how I could be so callous in regards to the world around me? Was I heartless?

I don't know. I'm self-aware, but that doesn't mean I can justify myself to anyone else. We've all got our issues. Sometimes they leave scars. Ones you can't see unless you pay close enough attention.

So I listened. All the way into Los Angeles County proper. There was a lot to tell. And even though Laura hadn't wanted to talk about it, I'd never heard her speak more.

XxX

Our van would have been very out of place rolling down the streets of Beverly Hills. Also, if the Facility were closer to us than we wished, they would have found us very quickly. We ditched our ride a few miles outside of the neighborhood and grabbed an Uber.

To say that Beverly Hills was not a place for us was an understatement. A child assassin, a wolfbot, and a kid that would probably never see the money it took to afford a year's payment on some of these homes in his entire lifetime. How the cops weren't called on us before we found where we needed to go, I would never know.

Even when we rolled up to the doorstep – or front gates – of one Julian Keller, I felt for a moment that we would still be arrested when he came out to see us in-person.

"What are you doing here?" Were the first words out of his mouth upon seeing us. How rude. No asking us how the summer was going, or anything like that, "What the hell is with your clothes?"

He could have been referring to the bullet holes in my shirt, the dirt, or... who knows what else I'd gotten on me from the fight the night before.

"Hi buddy!" I greeted Julian brightly. Black iron bars separating us between the street and his family's home property. From what I could see through the gate and up the driveway, it was quite the place, "Man. You really are rich as fuck, aren't you?"

Keller Pharmaceuticals was a thing. It took a while for me to be privy to how big of a thing it was since – being the strapping young buck I am – I never needed medicine.

"What the hell, Marcher?" Julian let me have it from his side of the gate, "You can't just come to my house. Wait, how do you even know where my house is?"

Julian didn't loathe me the way he did at the start of the semester, but we weren't close enough for me to just turn up out of the blue. To be fair, I don't know anyone who would have been cool with that.

"You live in Beverly Hills. That was all we needed. Well, that and-," I reached out and gave Laura's nose a squeeze, "Honk-honk," I had to stop and look at Wolf in amazement, "I can't believe she actually let me do that."

Saberwolf agreed, "I cannot either. I expected her to cut your fingers off."

It seemed to be at this point where Julian noticed that I had brought company. First he looked at Wolf, then over to Laura, who he had much less familiarity with, "The clone smelled me out like Wolverine? That's fucking creepy. Don't do that again, you hear me?"

The guy was harsh on people he didn't know very well. And Laura had always been antisocial, to be nice about it. Whenever I interacted with the Hellions or anyone else not affiliated with our team, she was never around.

She took the impolite acknowledgment of her presence in stride though, "Not just you. Your entire team. It was not difficult once we got close enough."

Julian stared her down until he realized he wasn't going to make her flinch. With a sigh, he turned back to me, "Seriously, what's going on?"

I reached out and tried to shake the bars of the gate, "We'll tell you inside. Right now, I really want a shower and a change of clothes, if you don't mind."

"I do mind. I mind a lot," Julian shot back before just giving up, "Whatever... come on."

With that, Laura, Saberwolf, and I were let onto the Keller family premises. Julian's folks were gone, which could have been seen as a good thing. I doubted we would have gotten past the front gate had they been present.

I was careful not to touch anything. To give you an idea of what I was dealing with, the foyer when we walked in could have doubled as an art museum in a small town – full of paintings and even a few statues for guests to observe. And that was the first room we saw. Saying Julian had a silver spoon in his mouth would have been conservative. Gold or platinum spoon would have been more apt.

I'm man enough to say that I was jealous. I don't even know what I'd do with that much money, and knowing that I would be getting more indefinitely. I would die trying to spend that shit.

Julian stopped us in front of a door and rapped his knuckle off of it, "Here you go. Shower up, and be quick. I seriously need to know what this is all about."

I nodded and gestured with my head for Laura to go inside while I went off to look for another shower. Julian grabbed my shoulder to stop me, "No. Uh-un. You guys use one bathroom," I gave him a look that he reacted to, "Come on. I can't just let you guys run around my house by yourselves."

"You let your team do it," I shot back, believing I had a point.

"Are you my team?" Julian gave me as a rebuttal, "Besides, I don't. I have Santo supervised 24/7. I don't need him wrecking up stuff in my parents' house by accident."

My last attempt was to throw myself on some existing sense of camaraderie, "Come on, man. It's me. Doesn't that mean anything?" With his lack of reaction, I didn't need him to answer that. In the end, I waved it off and turned to Laura, "You go first. I need to think."

She went in, and Julian went off with Saberwolf, presumably to find the others. That left me to slump up against the wall and sit on the floor, alone with my thoughts.

I didn't know what the hell I was talking about when I said I needed to think. Think about what? Once again, I was out of my depth when it came to something like this. But I needed to be ready with some kind of pitch to get the Hellions' support. We weren't at odds anymore, but we weren't as tight as I thought either, even after the end-of-semester party.

And here Laura said I was good with people. Clearly I wasn't that good.

Also, how to go about informing them on what was up was also an issue. This was Laura's story, and it was admittedly very ugly. While it was not my place to explain it all, this was a problem that I was theoretically going to ask the Hellions to deal with. It was why we were here to begin with. We didn't have any options, and I didn't want to keep anything from them. I didn't want to deceive anyone into doing anything dangerous.

This was Paladin business. Even if the Paladins currently consisted of me, Laura, and freelancer Saberwolf. But it was that mindset that was making this so hard in the first place. It was what turned common rivalries into the kind of obnoxious animosity that the Hellions and the New Mutants had. The kind that I used to have with Julian for a short time.

While I thought to myself, Laura came out and tapped me on the shoulder, dressed in the new clothes we'd managed to pick out, "It is your turn," She told me.

From where I sat on the floor, I glanced over and looked her over. I'd gotten a few outfits for us, and out of what she had, she'd picked a little pair of black shorts and a black t-shirt with a tiny cartoon of Jason from Friday the 13th on it.

Getting clothes for Laura was weird. She didn't know what she liked. When I asked her why she wore the clothes that she did, she told me someone else had shopped for her before and she just followed that archetype.

Whatever. I didn't know anything about girl clothes. I'd make Hisako do something about it later. It did seem like it worked though. Some brighter colors might have made her seem more approachable, but to be fair, she did look good in dark-colored clothes. I made note of such.

"You look good in that," I told her as I stood up and stretched, "I can't believe you were wearing black jeans in the summer. Weren't you hot?"

Laura looked herself over, tugging at the fabric of her shirt as though she were checking it over, "I will pay you back."

"Don't worry about it," I waved her off as I headed into the bathroom, digging through my bag to find what I was going to change into, "I've got money to blow. Not as much as our good friend Julian, but I've got some cash saved up from working at the theater."

"Have you come up with any ideas on how we will fight them?" Laura asked, leaning against the doorframe, her head peeking into the bathroom, "You said you needed to think."

So she had believed in me when I'd said that? Too bad. She probably shouldn't have, "I can think of whatever I want, Laura. I barely know what I'm doing," I admitted, "Simulations and all of that crap will only take me so far."

Laura closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "I am familiar with this sort of thing," She said confidently.

"That's what I'm counting on. But you've seen the Hellions. Do you really think they're going to listen to us?"

Her eyes shot open and she glared at me, "Why did we come here then?"

My plans weren't perfect, but at least I was trying something. I was willing to take suggestions if anyone else came up with any, "Because if the X-Men are tied up in something, we don't have a lot of options for help," I picked up my phone and wagged it for emphasis before throwing it over to her, "I called them while I was sitting outside. Like Wolf said yesterday – Nothing."

Laura stared down at my phone in her hands and frowned, "I do not like this," She said, "If it were just me, that would be one thing. But it is you, and now them."

She didn't want the Hellions involved. She didn't want me involved to start with. But as badass as she was, she was one person against an organization that knew how to deal with her. That did not make for a successful formula, "If it were just you, even if I was with you, it would be even worse. I want us to have as much of a fighting chance as possible."

I wanted to live. I wanted her to live. I'd told her what I thought about her opinion of her self-worth. It didn't bear repeating. But even if Laura didn't feel like she deserved to be alive, I wanted her to be.

Laura gave a deep sigh, but decided to leave things at that, "I understand. I will find Saberwolf and Julian."

Laura slinked away and shut the door behind her, leaving me alone in the bathroom to shower. Good. I could take a few minutes to turn my brain off. No one to fight. No one to look over my shoulder for. Marginally safe.

I let out a sigh as the warm water hit me. For the time being, I'd take it.

XxX

After my shower, I felt more refreshed, but no closer to thinking of a way to solve my troubles.

The entire team of the Hellions was out at the pool, hanging out in their swimsuits, sans Sooraya and Kevin. Sooraya, because she wouldn't show her body in front of men for religious reasons. Kevin, because if he touched anyone with his bare skin, they would die.

In my opinion, both were perfectly reasonable reasons to keep from partaking in pool activities.

"Hey, Marcher really is here!" Santo pointed out from the pool, being the first to see me come outside. I waved to everyone I hadn't seen yet, "Yeah! Another party! Let's go!" He demanded, thrashing his arms about.

"No more parties, you idiot," Julian replied from where he was lounging in the water, covering his face from being splashed, "Marcher, the clone, and the robot are in trouble."

Cessily swam up to Julian and gave him a swat on the arm, "Her name is Laura, Julian. Don't be rude."

"And I am an A.I.-" Wolf specified out of annoyance, relaxing safely away from the water with Sooraya and Kevin, "-Not a robot."

"What's this about you being in trouble?" Brian asked, finally listening to what any of us had to say, "And you came here? Dude, we're not that close."

I knew that. I didn't need the reminder, "We didn't exactly have a lot of options," I said, shooting Brian a dirty look, "We're not even going to be here long. We just came to ask for help. If you say no? Well, that's it and we're out of here. We'll figure out something else."

"Wait," Santo demanded, climbing out of the pool to walk up to me, water sliding off of his rocky frame, "You're actually asking us for help? You? Mister 'Fuck-Everything-In-Eyeshot-With-A-Light-Bullet'?" He asked in mock disbelief, "I didn't think I'd ever see the day."

"It's more like beams of light than bullets," I said, before getting sidetracked in thought. Could I shoot bullets? I could make grenades. Would it make any difference if I could? None of that crap mattered, "…But yeah. I need help."

"I'm not loaning you any money, dude," Julian deadpanned from his spot in the pool, keeping himself just on surface of the water with his telekinesis, "I'm on thin ice with my parents already. I've got to try and keep my head down for the vacation."

"We do not need money. There is someone trying to kill us," Laura declared sternly from the side of the water, "Well, kill Bellamy and Saberwolf. They would prefer to capture me."

Everyone looked over at her in surprise, then back to me in shock, "Something's trying to kill you again?" Santo said, "Man, and I thought we got into our share of crap."

They may have gotten in more trouble, but our trouble was usually bigger, "It's a long story."

"Cliffnotes version, if you don't mind," Cessily requested, pulling herself out of the pool as well, now that things were serious, "Short and sweet seems to be the best way to tell us about this stuff."

Alright. If Laura could be blunt, I could absolutely match her on that front, "The short version is that mean, nasty people are after her. I shot the bitch in charge in the face. It didn't hurt. She shot me back with a gun. It REALLY hurt. We've been running for the last day trying to figure out a way to deal with her."

"Can't you just beat her up and leave her for the cops?" Kevin pointed out from the comfort of shade, "People say you've done stuff like that before."

I gestured his way, as he would have had a point had it not been for something I'd already brought up, "Note the 'shot her in the face' part. We can't keep her down," I jerked my head Wolf's way, "He dropped a helicopter on her and we're not sure it did the job."

"The helicopter in question also exploded," Wolf chimed in from close to Kevin's feet, "We are still skeptical that the mercenary known as Kimura is dead."

If I didn't have Julian's attention, I sure did now. He looked impressed, as though he were seeing Saberwolf in a new light, "How did you drop a-?"

"Julian! Cliffnotes!" Cessily was the team member that had her eye on what was prudent. Namely, what they may or may not have been getting into, "Do you have anything else, Bellamy," She said sweetly.

The least I could do for her cordiality was keep to her parameters. Per the metallic girl's prompting, I wrapped it up, "Add onto the fact that she apparently has a bunch of fuckers with automatics at her beck and call... after what happened last night, the next time around she's probably gonna try and hit us even harder. That's all I've got for you."

"I'm in," Julian barely let me finish briefing them before he volunteered himself to help us, "Oh, yes. Yes-yes-yes, I'm so in."

Brian kept floating around in the pool, even when Julian levitated himself out to dry off, "Julian, I thought you said you were trying to keep us from making a scene or causing any trouble," He said.

Julian scoffed and rolled his eyes, "Yeah, trouble around here, like in Beverly Hills. The kind of trouble that could get back to my parents. I never wanted us to stay cooped up in the mansion all summer," He said to his teammate, "They're never even gonna know about this! And even if they did, so what? This is superhero stuff! Who would be embarrassed by their kid kicking ass like the good guys?"

Kevin's expression changed. The boy who brought death with a touch liked the sound of being a hero instead of something for people to watch out for, "We are the good guys in this, right?" He asked to make absolute sure, "I don't feel like getting tricked into doing villain stuff."

Laura seemed offended at the possibility that the Facility could ever be on the side of right, "Our enemies kill for hire and perform unethical, illegal experiments on humans and mutants. No. They are definitely not the 'good guys'."

That was all Julian needed to hear, "You heard the clone! Which means we, by default, are! The good guys, I mean."

Cessily didn't have pupils for me to be sure, but I was certain that she had rolled her eyes. Body language was everything, "Nice, Julian. Way to translate for us," She said sarcastically.

Julian tried to appeal to her sense of accomplishment, "Come on, Cess, this is what the Hellions were made for. You can't seriously want Marcher to get all of the glory for this too."

I took offense to that. I didn't look for all of this to keep happening to me. It just did, and it just so happened that my only two options were to roll over and die, or fight it, "What glory? Jerks keep trying to kill me, and I would prefer that didn't happen."

Santo grabbed me by the shoulder and gave me a good, hearty shake. He almost took it out of the socket by accident, "Whatever. Don't act like all of the stuff you've been doing didn't get you laid."

"It did not."

"So you and Pixie didn't hook up?"

Ol' Rockhead had me at a loss, because that did happen. And more people were privy to it than I first thought, "...Not because of that!" I argued back, "We're students, not celebrities. Take that stargazing bullshit somewhere else."

Laura, of all people, came to my rescue, "That is not a concern," She said, a sharp tone in her voice that got everyone's attention, "There are more important things to deal with right now."

Julian agreed, and made to whip his team into fighting form, "Right! Hellions, get ready to roll out! We've got to help Marcher, otherwise he'll get himself, the robot, and the clone all killed."

"I am an A.I./Oh, fuck off," Wolf and I both said to Julian, overlapping each other before staring across the pool at each other as the Hellions all started to vacate the pool area to prepare themselves. That left me and my cohorts to do the same.

I went to head back inside when Laura grabbed my arm to stop me. When I turned to face her, she had a troubled look, "What's the matter?"

"Do you remember when you asked me to tell you when I feel upset with you?"

"Yeah?"

"I feel upset with you."

And with that, she passed me by without looking back. I was stunned. This again? I couldn't believe it. At least this time she had the courtesy to tell me about it. As Wolf padded over to me, I shook my head, "What in the blue hell did I do now?"

"Perhaps it would be best if you left the matter alone for now," Wolf suggested, "There will be plenty of time for you to sabotage your personal relationships with others once we survive our current ordeal."

Why did none of my friends respect me? Seriously. I needed to know.

I shoved Wolf from behind with my foot, but he didn't budge very much, "Metal son of a bitch," I cursed.

Wolf, ever the smartass, didn't miss a beat, "Your insult is ineffective. I do not have a conventional parentage, therefore am no one's son. Nor do I have a mother who can be construed as a 'bitch'."

I wished Wolf wasn't as good as he was at disarming my slights and insults, because I could almost never do it back to him. And could he teach Laura about casual conversation and banter in my place? Because apparently, she was goddamn mad at me again!

XxX

I didn't know what kind of preparing the Hellions needed to do. It wasn't like any of us had our team outfits to squeeze into for the sake of doing this crap. As far as I knew, Julian didn't have a Keller Family jet-o-doom the way the X-Men had the Blackbird, so what the hell were we hanging around for?

I was antsy. Laura was antsy. We both knew that the longer we stayed in one place, the more dangerous it was. Being behind gates, even in a public place like Beverly Hills wasn't going to keep someone away if they really wanted to get at us. The addition of six extra superpowered teenagers was a better deterrent, but even that wouldn't keep for long.

As Julian said, we wouldn't be allowed to hang out there all summer long. I didn't even want to in the first place. Damn his family's property though. When I peeked out the windows, I could barely see off of the property. The line of sight in this place was terrible. If anyone decent was sneaking up on us, I wouldn't know.

Giving up on spotting any sign of trouble for the time being, I left it alone. Walking through one of the parlor rooms where most everyone was gathered, I gave Kevin Ford a pat on the shoulder. He flinched, a lot like Laura used to, though it was because he was afraid he would kill me. Not with two layers of synthetic clothing between the skin on his arm and anything else. I said something about summer for Laura. Summer for this guy had to be god-awful.

"Are you sure your whole team is down for jumping into this mess?" I asked Julian as he lounged around with Santo and Brian on some couches.

Julian gave me a flippant look in return, "Hey, we're all in the same training program you are. Just because you get shot off to space with the X-Men to fight aliens doesn't make you better than us."

That hadn't been what I was getting at. Truth be told, none of us were qualified to be handling this ourselves, "I'm just saying, man. This is gonna suck. I don't want anyone to get involved if they really don't want to," I looked around and noticed a few absent members of the group – Cessily, Sooraya, and Laura, "What about Sooraya?"

I didn't talk to her much. A lot of opportunity for it didn't come up. We were the least acquainted out of the members of the Hellions. The Muslim girl was very passive and quiet. Comparably so to Laura, except that Laura had carte blanche to call me on my bullshit whenever she found it appropriate, and exercised that right.

Julian shrugged it off as an afterthought, "She didn't say she was against it."

"She didn't say she was up for it either," I rebutted.

This was of little or no concern to the guy in charge, "It doesn't really matter. I call the shots, and I say we're in."

This was a case study in the contrast between our teams. The Paladins and the Hellions ran differently. I knew this. Everyone that observed us for five minutes knew this. Our leaders and our teams were reflections of how we were put together and what we were meant to do in the first place.

For my team, I might have been the leader, but I listened to everyone else. If I gave an order that someone else wasn't onboard with, and it wasn't a matter of life and death, I heard them out. It had to work like that, because the way we were set up, there were a bunch of different uses for us. We could kick ass, or we could do more subtle things than that if it was needed. Versatility, people. We morphed according to the situation, so as a leader I had to be flexible and adjust.

With the Hellions, the buck started and stopped with Julian. As a team, their tactics weren't bad, but they weren't strategists. They were a shock team; students put together in such a way that they could and would overwhelm you quickly. They were the best when it came to direct combat, and that was where they were focused. With that focus, they were led by a single individual. Julian was the strongest of them, both in personality and with his powers, because that was what they needed.

For the sake of getting into a big fight, if I had to choose a team of students to back us up, there was none better. It remained to be seen how things would go if it wasn't that direct a solution for our problem, because I sincerely doubted Julian was going to fall in line behind me without a gun literally pointed to his head.

We all gathered out front, prepared to set out as a unit. Eight of Xavier's students and an A.I. originally built to hunt mutants. What a cluster.

I cleared my throat and addressed the lot of them, "Alright, friends, acquaintances, and whatever the hell Julian Keller is supposed to be-," I ignored the middle finger put up in my direction from said individual, "-We're heading to TIJUANA, MEXICO!"

Brian and Julian's eyes went wide as they looked at each other in surprise, "Awesome!"

I knew that would get a few of them stoked. Santo threw his bag a hundred feet into the air, not bothering to catch it. Hopefully nothing fragile was in there, "Fucking, arriba! I've turned the corner on you all the way, Marcher. I love your team."

He went to high-five Brian, which was a bad idea for the latter. Smacking solid rock moving your way as hard as possible, not a smart idea.

Off to the side, Kevin leaned in to speak to Saberwolf, "Does this kind of thing happen a lot?"

Saberwolf didn't mince words, "Yes. More than I expected when I agreed to stay with Bellamy."

My attempts to get the masses pumped were thwarted by Laura who grabbed my arm and shook her head, "No. Not Mexico."

"What? What do you mean, 'not Mexico'?" I asked, "You said they had a base in Mexico."

Laura's brow furrowed in discomfort as she wondered how to say what she wanted, "I... have been thinking. That was a trap that Kimura set for us," She said, just loud enough for me to hear, "The only reason she did not attack us when we went to cross the first time was because we traveled from San Francisco quicker than she had anticipated."

I needed a moment to take stock of what I had just heard and process it all, "Wait. So, she fought you the first time, trying to get you to take a red herring to go to Mexico, so she could ambush you again."

Someone was clearly playing 4D chess while the rest of us were playing checkers.

Laura dissuaded that line of thinking, "No. She did not intend for me to escape the first time. She planted intelligence I would try to use on the off-chance that I would get away," As she told me all of this, she sounded miserable, "...She knows me very well. Better than anyone."

I gave her a poke on the forehead, "Another reason why doing this yourself would have been dumb," I couldn't help but add while I thought of our current situation, "So I can't pick your brain," Anything she knew had been stuffed into her head by Kimura, and if it hadn't been, Kimura likely knew the same operational procedures Laura knew.

"As far as trying to determine a course of action, probably not," She admitted, her head down, "I am sorry."

No. There was no need to apologize for that. She didn't do anything wrong. It only served to reason that someone who spent most of your life beating the piss out of you and dishing out orders to you would have a good idea of how you would react in certain situations.

But in that same vein, Kimura didn't know a fucking thing about the rest of us and what any of us would do. That much was clear when she thought I'd cut and run back at the border.

"It's okay. We'll handle it," I assured Laura before turning back to the crowd. It was here that another problem reared its ugly head, "So, how are we getting around?"

The sight of all of the Hellions looking at each other in confusion was a bad sign, "Wait, what do you mean?"

I drew back, not expecting that response, "What do you mean, 'What do I mean?'" I replied, "What are our wheels looking like?"

Julian walked forward, arms crossed obstinately, "You came here to get us. What do you got?"

I had nothing. We had ditched the van we'd come to L.A. with hours ago, and even if it hadn't been found by police yet, I was done pushing our luck with that stolen vehicle.

I held my hand over my face. I could feel a migraine building, "You're telling me that we have to walk like a bunch of chumps?" I snapped, "You're rich! Don't you have a stretch hummer or a private jet or something to take us all somewhere?"

Granted, that wasn't exactly discreet, but it would definitely fit us all. Beggars couldn't be choosers.

My attitude wasn't appreciated by my 'host', "Lay off, Marcher! I told you, I'm on thin ice with my parents!" Julian quieted down and looked away for the next part, "...Besides, they took the jet to go on vacation."

I threw my hands up in defeat, "Great! So, I'll just call an Uber for all eight of us!"

"You're the one that wanted our help!"

Before we could get deeper into our worthless argument, Cessily pushed both of us apart, "Both of you, cut it out already!" She turned to me, "Bellamy, how did you guys even get here?"

I jerked my thumb in Laura's direction, "She stole a van that we rode all the way to Mexico and back up here."

"Could she do that again?"

"Cess!" Kevin exclaimed, not wanting to play party to a crime.

Cessily turned toward him and shrugged it off, "It's not like we have much of a choice if we want to go anywhere. Julian can't fly all seven of us to wherever we're going."

"Boo," Santo complained, "This sucks. Can't you transform into a motorcycle or something?" He said to Wolf, who again, was not a robot.

Wolf batted his tail around in annoyance, "No. And a motorcycle would only carry two people at most."

Fine. We were serial car thieves now, it seemed, "Laura, take somebody with you and go get us a ride of some kind. We'll be... not here when you do."

We didn't need to pick up the Hellions in a stolen car in front of his parents' house if he was already in hot water.

Santo perked up and raised his hand like he was in class, "Ooh! Ooh! Pick me! Pick me!" He wanted to be a part of a felony.

She ignored Santo's attempt to lobby his way into helping, "I would rather bring someone more inconspicuous," Big, green eyes turned to me hopefully, "Bellamy?"

Goddamn it. I was such a sucker for girls, it wasn't even funny. I melted immediately.

"Right," I agreed, "Well, I didn't see how you did it the first time, so I might as well."

Laura didn't even do it on purpose either. If she ever learned how effective that look was, I would be in trouble. It would get me every time. And hadn't she just told me she was mad at me? It hadn't been an hour. What happened to that?

XxX

I was an accessory to two crimes. The same crime, just different executions of it actually – stealing a car. Granted, I wasn't awake and had no role in it the first time, but I still benefited from it. The second time, I absolutely stood by and watched Laura use her claw like a slim jim tool on an old van to open the lock in a matter of seconds.

"Huh," I said as I watched her scoot over to the driver's seat to pop off the cover to the steering column to get to the wires, "For some reason I thought you'd do something more subtle than that to get in."

"Subtlety is not a substitute for speed when it comes to stealing a vehicle," Laura said as she engine flared to life, "Get in. We must go."

Not wanting to be caught out in the open stealing a motor vehicle, I hopped inside and kept my eyes peeled for anyone who might have seen us as Laura pulled off, "You think this thing is big enough for everyone?"

Laura nodded, keeping her eyes on the road like a diligent driver, "Whichever two sit in the rows with Santo and Saberwolf will be tight, but it should be fine."

Maybe so, but that didn't mean jack if we didn't have a real plan. We'd just be driving around in a hot car until something came up, "Sure, but we don't even know where we're going next-," Before I could express that point, my phone went off, "Yo."

"Marcher!" Brian shouted in my ear. In the background I could hear a mishmash of noise, including screaming and gunfire. My blood curdled, "People are here and shooting!"

I should have known. Saberwolf was really recognizable. If anyone was looking for us and spotted him, there was no question that he was the thing that had been with us, "Alright! Alright! Where is here?"

"I don't know! We didn't get that far from the house, maybe a mile or two? Hold on!" Brian stopped talking for a moment. I heard footsteps, yelling, and more sounds of deadly fighting, "Hellion says Parklabrea! He'd know better than I do!" He said, using his leader's codename.

I was already punching in the general location in Google Maps before he finished his sentence, "You got a more exact location than that?" I asked before leaning over to Laura, "Head west."

With a hard look in her eyes, Laura turned the car around in the middle of traffic and took off in the direction of certain danger.

"No. We were gonna knock around for a bit, and Wither wanted to see a museum nearby, so we were heading there," Brian said, "Trust me. When you get close, you'll know."

I didn't like the sound of that, but he hadn't said anything about anyone being hurt or dead, so we had that to go off of.

As we got closer, I realized what Brian had been talking about when he told me I'd know when we were close.

I saw a large, silver aircraft hovering in the air above the city street. Something told me it wasn't exactly cleared to be in Los Angeles airspace, "Is that a gunship? They have a gunship?"

Laura sped straight ahead down the street where everything seemed to be going haywire the most, "They have everything," Without warning, she turned off of the street onto a sidewalk underneath where the aircraft was.

Every second that went on, I hated the situation more. Whatever had happened, the Hellions had fallen back to a park for more cover and space for a fight. The problem with that? The park was surrounded on all sides by tall buildings with sidewalks leading in and out serving as choke points.

Remember when I said tactical brilliance wasn't ever their strong suit? And that was setting aside the fact they were a bunch of teenagers like me, panicking that they were getting shot at.

Laura was merciless, though. The moment we started riding along one of the sidewalks to get into the park, she drove straight through a group of guys with expensive-looking high-tech suits covering them from head-to-toe. Some of them had heavy armor with weapons that were parts of their suits; automatic weaponry in their arms and cannons on their backs. It was some serious sci-fi stuff.

It didn't help them from getting turned into roadkill.

I must say, in my two recent encounters with graphic violence, I was saved from actually seeing the worst of it. The night before at the border, it had been really dark for most of the fight, so I didn't get the best view of Laura slicing and dicing soldiers up, nor of me putting holes in them and blowing up faces. And here, these guys were covered in futuristic armor, so while the impact of a van hitting them might have been messy inside, I didn't have to look at it from the outside.

Laura pulled over the second we saw the first Hellion in peril and we both jumped out. My hands were glowing, and her claws were out. Anyone in a shitty spaceman suit caught an adamantium blade or more light than they ever wanted to have touch them. That was only enough to clear the way to help one person though.

Kevin had been running away to try and get somewhere out of the way. His powers weren't a lot of help here since he had to touch things to make it work, and he wasn't exactly going to get skin-on-skin contact with a bunch of hermetically sealed jerks with guns very easily.

I yanked him down behind the cover of a large concrete planter containing a full-grown tree and immediately started bitching, "Why the fuck did you corral yourselves into a kill box?"

I might have had the urge to slap him if I knew I wouldn't lose my hand in the process.

Kevin looked up at me, but tucked his head the second more shots started coming out way, "It just started happening! We tried to fight 'em on the street, but we couldn't move, and there were too many people to keep out of the way! Brian and Cess tried, but the rest of us couldn't keep all of their attention!"

Well, we could try to muster a counterattack. Laura and I were supposed to be the cavalry, so it was time we finished riding in to get everybody out, "Laura, we gotta-," I started to say before realizing that she wasn't there with us, "Laura? Where did she go? She was just with us."

Kevin shrugged and popped his head up to peek around while I covered him with light blasts. Why did she just up and go lone wolf again? We had been over this before. That wasn't the way to do this.

I fired some shots that bought us a few moments and dragged Kevin up to go find the others. He ducked and flinched with every shot that sounded out, even though none were coming at us. I didn't have time for that.

We found Julian dealing with a good number of guys in bodysuits, using his telekinesis to sweep them aside while Santo was battering them with his bare hands in close. Julian saw me and set the telekinesis aside, "This is fucking mess! I didn't know you were into all this!"

I was mad, so I took out that anger on the nearest jabroni in armor trying to get the drop on us. I shot him dead-center and blew the chest of his suit up, "I told you people were trying to kill me! What did you think that meant when I went and asked for help?"

Julian put up a force field to stop himself from getting shot, "I didn't know you meant the U-Men!" He barked back, "How do you keep doing this to yourself?"

U-Men. So that's what they were called. It sounded familiar, "What are they all about?"

Julian angrily grabbed two U-Men with his telekinesis and threw them away over the treetops, "Ripping off mutant parts and putting them on themselves for the powers!"

I stopped looking for targets to shoot in order to give him a curious look, "Ew. What kind of Frankenstein's Monster shit is that?"

This time Julian stopped to look at me like I was stupid, "You fought them already and didn't know?"

"No! I never fought these guys! They weren't the ones after us before!"

"Fantastic! So we have an all new pack of douchebags here to kill you! Any plans, Marcher?"

Finally, we could get past the bickering and get down to business. My eyes went straight up at the stupidly imposing vessel in the sky, "First, take out the air superiority."

Julian agreed with me, but winced when I brought it up, "I tried. I can't bring that thing down. It's too big."

"Let me try," I put my hands together and slowly pulled them apart, feeling the resistance as a tiny little ball of light started to form. Julian saw what I was doing and quickly moved away, remembering the Danger Room. I stopped making the Lux Bomb immediately, "No-no-no, get back here, asshole! I need you to cover me!"

He was afraid. As he should have been. The Lux Bomb was the most dangerous and powerful thing I had in my arsenal. But it wasn't like I was aiming it at him. Julian didn't care though, "No chance! I'm not letting you shoot that thing around me again!"

"Don't be a pussy!" I needed some kind of cover. My hands were occupied while I was making a Lux Bomb, so I couldn't fight until it was done, "Put up a forcefield around us and give me a hand!"

Julian was not running away. He was flying away, "I've got U-Men to fight! Rockslide, cover Solaris! He's gonna shoot down the ship!"

Santo seemed to like the idea. At least someone did, "Awesome! How you gonna do that, Marcher?"

"A giant light bomb," I told him. But I couldn't find another opening to start up on the Lux Bomb. Damn Julian Keller, "Your leader's a bitch sometimes!"

"Yeah, sometimes. Whoa!" Santo moved in the way of gunfire intended for me and intercepted the bullets. He was a solid dude, both literally and figuratively, "You want to get to him, you gotta go through me!"

The fear of being run down by a living golem was something that I could relate to. Punk-ass U-Men though? They probably never imagined it happening to them until right then. But even with Santo running around like the most imposing bodyguard anyone could dream up, I still couldn't get a clean opening to charge my attack.

Fed up and annoyed, I put my glorious plan to shoot down the aircraft on the backburner. It wouldn't work until I could find a place quiet enough to prepare a proper Lux Bomb. On my way to relocate, I caught sight of Sooraya and Cessily.

As I watched them, a question arose. If you were a regular joe, even if you had fancy-ass weapons, what would make you think you could fight a living sandstorm? Because some of the U-Men were armored up, Sooraya didn't hold back.

A strong enough sandstorm can strip the skin off of a human being. Did you know that? I didn't. It had never come up until that moment. When Sooraya realized that she was doing that much damage to the U-Men who didn't have armor, she damn near stopped her attack outright, partially turning back from her dust form.

Anyone looking to take advantage of the opening presented by her remorse was quickly put down by Cessily, who had morphed her arms into mallets to clobber them with. Okay, so they sure didn't need my help. Good to know.

"You guys alright?" I shouted out, just to make sure. Clearly, they could handle themselves, if I'd had any doubts before.

Cessily nodded, keeping her eyes peeled for more enemies, "Yeah. Glad to see you made it. Welcome to the party."

I scoffed and tried to look offended, "My parties are way better than this. I don't see a drop of alcohol anywhere," I turned and pointed at the thing in the sky, "Maybe that thing has some? I'm gonna go see."

"You're going for the airship?" Cessily asked before grinning at the thought of turning the tables, "Want some help?"

"Of course! It's why I came to L.A. in the first place."

And so, we took off to try and get me a better spot to take a shot from. But as we moved, something was weird.

"Wait. It's getting lower," Cessily pointed out, "Why is it getting lower?"

"No idea. I'm thinking it might be important though," Cessily had my back, so we ran off to the part of the park that the aircraft had lowered itself down over. The U-Men seemed to be falling back as we approached, "Are they pulling out of here?"

"Good riddance!" Cessily said. Bullets just passed through her body as she contorted herself and stretched close enough to lash out at enemy combatants and attack them with long finger claws.

Seriously, the Hellions were dangerous as fuck. I mean, they were really good. In a head-to-head battle royal situation, I didn't think the Paladins could beat them straight-up. Actually, with the numbers advantage they would have, I'd say more than likely not.

When we got close enough, we could see that they were indeed retreating. It made sense. Even with the ambush, they were getting their asses handed to them. But that wasn't the point. From where we were when we got close enough, they'd gotten something that they could objectively leave with and call it a victory.

Kimura had Laura, beaten to an absolute pulp, tucked underneath one arm like a sack. She was covered in blood. Her own from the looks of the wounds that I could see healing on her, including a fucking bullet hole in her head.

"Laura! Goddamn it!" I yelled in vain. Cessily gasped with her hands to her mouth. Just screaming Laura's name wasn't going to do anything. She wasn't going to magically wake up and fight her way back to me, "Give her back, you sadistic skank!"

Kimura seemed overjoyed to see me, if only because she got to lord Laura's half-dead body over me, "Well if it ain't lover boy! Don't worry, she's not dead. Not yet, at least!" She punctuated, disrespectfully slapping Laura's head roughly, "I might let you have the only part of her that she's any good for to you once we're done."

Evil bitch. I wanted her head on a stick. But here, we were reminded that this particular aircraft was a gunship. It turned around and pointed its guns right at us before opening fire. Cessily tried to protect me, but she couldn't stop an accurate 30mm cannon, so I turned tail and ran. It wasn't like I could help anyone riddled with holes.

While I ducked for cover, the gunship took off, leaving us and any U-Men unfortunate enough to miss the departure on the ground. They stood out in the open, waving at the gunship to come back, as if it would land and open its doors all over again to let them on.

I was livid. I was so angry I ran out and blindsided those morons. With the noise of the takeoff, none of them realized they were being attacked until they were already down. The last one, I didn't even shoot. I sprinted up and punched him in the side of the head as hard as I could. He wasn't heavily armored and dropped like a rock.

I don't remember ever hitting any living thing that couldn't defend itself as hard as I beat on that guy. This was his fault. This was the U-Men's fault. This was the Facility's fault.

And it was my fault. I fucked up again, and someone else I knew was going to suffer because of it. I heard muffled words from different people in my ear, but I just kept punching.

Eventually, I was pulled off of my victim by Santo. I was stronger physically than the rest of the Hellions, all except for him. I could struggle as much as I wanted, I wasn't getting out of his grip, especially with my arms bound, "Get off me, Rockslide!"

I'd gotten through the U-Man's stupid boy in the bubble helmet and had been doing a very good job of turning his face to hamburger with my fists. I wasn't finished.

"Don't let him go, Rockslide!" Julian ordered, "Solaris, this shit isn't helping anybody! Calm down!"

I kicked and spat, but Santo didn't budge. I couldn't even hit him from how he had me, "Fuck you! You didn't lose anybody!" I bellowed at Julian, "And I don't know how to find these guys, so Laura's screwed! I don't know what to do now, so I'm gonna beat the fuck out of these cowards until I feel better! And that might take a while!"

"Yeah, you just do that while they get farther away," Julian said, "Do you want to throw a hissy fit, or do you want to help Laura out?"

I wasn't going anywhere, so I stopped fighting. Instead, I just glared at Julian. I had to be careful or I would have given him the laser pointer treatment and blinded him, "Do you even care? She's just a clone to you anyway, isn't she?"

Julian let out frustrated grunt and grabbed one of the goons that tried crawling away with his telekinesis. He threw him across the ground like a ragdoll, "This happened on my watch too. The U-Men, and that bitch with them... they came right in here, wrecked shit, reached into my refrigerator and took off! I'm pissed too. So let's go do something about it that actually means something."

That sounded good. Really good. But a pep talk was one thing. Facts were facts, "We can't catch them, genius. We can't find them! How are we gonna do something that people whose actual job it is to find them couldn't do it?"

Once again, I found myself out of my depth. Even when I tried to enlist help, they were just as lost as I was. But they were fresher than I was, so they weren't done quite yet.

"We're gonna try. Or are you just a quitter?" Julian said, trying to bait me. I felt my anger rise again, so it worked, "I could say a lot of things about you, Marcher, but I never thought 'quitter' was one of them."

What did he know? He'd spent most of the semester screwing around, playing big man on campus. Sure, there'd been a few things I'd heard of the Hellions getting mixed up in, but it was more delinquent crap than matters of life or death.

Me on the other hand? I was starting to feel fatigued with it all. It was so much, and it just kept piling up. I was so sick of taking lumps. It seemed like every creep on the planet and beyond lined up to take a chunk out of us. It wasn't just me. It was Laura, it was the entire student body, it was Saberwolf.

It was Miss Pryde.

I was frustrated. I had been for some time. And I tried to keep a level head, tried to be the brave leader guy, because that was what my job was, right? But I was tired of my people taking this kind of heat. I needed someone, something to take all of this shit out on.

At that moment, my phone went off. I looked back at Santo, who finally set me down so I could check it, not that I wanted to have any conversations with anyone at the moment. That was, until I saw who was calling. I couldn't hit the green accept button quickly enough, "Wolf? Oh man, are you alright?"

In my fear and unbridled rage that Laura had been taken, I had forgotten that Saberwolf had been with the Hellions when this whole thing started. I hadn't seen him the entire time we'd been fighting. Now I had another reason to feel bad. But Wolf had just what I needed.

"I cannot speak for long. I have infiltrated the enemy aircraft. How do you wish for me to proceed?"

My phone was still on speaker from the last time I'd used it the night before at the border, so everyone around me heard him. Santo pointed off in the direction Kimura took Laura in, "Your robot thingy is on the gunship? How?"

"I possess stealth camouflage."

All eyes turned to me. I had no response for any of the Hellions, "...He usually doesn't fight for me. I really didn't know he could do that," I said meekly. Seriously, it had never come up.

Now all of a sudden we had a real chance to make a difference. Everyone could see it and everyone had an opinion.

Brian muscled his way close to the phone to get his two cents in, "Dude, can he take it down from the inside?"

Cessily pulled him back admonishing him at how reckless that idea was, "And bring it down where? On top of a city somewhere? Besides, what about Laura?"

True, Laura could take a lot. But I wasn't sure she could take a gunship crash and survive.

Kevin chimed in, a safe distance from possibly touching anyone else, "He's tough, right? Can he get her out by himself somehow?"

I didn't like that idea. They would be hundreds if not thousands of feet in the air by now. Wolf was way over the weight limit to safely use a parachute, and Laura had taken a slug to the temple. She wouldn't be well for quite a while, "He's on his own up there, and he's not a hundred percent. I don't want him tangling with those guys all alone."

"It is just as well. I cannot fit through the halls to begin with."

Good old Wolf. He didn't mean to, but he got a chuckle out of me. I was starting to calm down. Starting to think. We had an option to take now, "A lot of this won't matter if we don't crush them where they're coming from. They'll just come at Laura later," It was a long summer. There would be plenty of opportunities to get at her again. We had to make sure they weren't coming back anytime soon, if ever, "Wolf, stay out of sight for as long as possible. We'll track you, and then we'll have an inside man too."

"I believe can stay hidden until it lands," He said, agreeing with my directions, "On the off-chance I am discovered though, I will be forced to, 'go loud' as they say."

"Of course," It went without saying. There wasn't really anything else he could do, "If it goes that far, you won't really have a choice but to bring the whole thing down if you can."

"Can? No, I will find a way. You can be certain of that"

Yes I could, "Be safe, buddy. We'll see you soon," With that, I hung the phone up and ran a hand through my hair. Now we just had to move fast enough to make Wolf's little infiltration count, "Okay, things have changed. We need to move fast and follow Wolf now. Any ideas?"

No more hissy fits. There wasn't any time for that. My teammate's life hung in the balance, and my A.I. friend was risking his to keep tabs on her.

Julian didn't look pleased at what he was about to say, "...I'm gonna get in so much trouble for this, but yes. Time to bust out the black card. You'd better be grateful for this, Marcher."

Oh, I definitely was. From what he'd told me, he was going to get chewed out by his parents. But we'd already crossed that bridge and burnt it to a crisp. All I could do was my part to try and make it right, "First day back at school, I'll tell everyone how the Hellions saved my sorry ass. X-Men included."

Brian noticed that I'd pulled up an app that had a dot all over the map of the region, "Whoa. You have a GPS tracker on Saberwolf?"

I looked up and shrugged, "Not just him. I have a GPS tracker on all my teammates' phones, except Laura's," Everyone seemed to think this was strange, making me feel self-conscious yet again that day, "...We've had to deal with being captured by bad guys before."

I did. I had to deal with being captured before. This was a thing instituted in the Paladins because of me. Because sometimes, I suck. Just like that day, I sucked. My calls were shitty. My leadership was shitty. And Laura got caught because I either didn't put my foot down hard enough, or because she didn't believe in me enough to rely on me anymore than she did.

Maybe she was right? Maybe she was better off trying to hold court on her own, before I muscled my way in, trying to be a good friend? None of that mattered at the moment. She needed help, and there weren't a lot of people around willing or in position to give it.

Just seven high school kids and a surly-ass A.I. against the Facility and whatever other groups they had watching their backs for their own interests.

It was a good thing the odds were so bad. I don't think I would have known how to act if I was actually the favorite in something.

...Yeah, I've got nothing witty or informative to share with you this time around. Chapter's complete, people.

I hope you guys enjoyed, and I hope I'll catch you around for the next one.

Kenchi out.