Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel. Captain Marvel is this weekend. I haven't heard anything about it yet, so I hope it's good. Set my palate for Avengers: Endgame, goddamn it.

Chapter 30: Big City Field Trip

Eddie had gotten up early to get breakfast with me, a major feat for him on the weekend. It would have been great bro-time if he hadn't been a grumpy dick about getting up before noon. And if getting up early didn't make him testy enough, when we made it back to the common area inside the boy's dorm, we saw Reverend William Stryker on TV, mixing in hate speech with his sermons. Three guesses as to who it was aimed at.

Eddie sighed and shook his head at Jay Guthrie from the New Mutants, the student up watching the show, "Dude, I know you get down with the televangelist stuff on Sunday mornings, but you literally couldn't have picked a worse one to watch."

I looked at it for a moment before disregarding it. Stryker was far from the first person with a platform to say we suck. I was more amazed that he was around in the first place, "I thought this guy was in jail. Wasn't he in jail?"

Last time I checked, which was when Miss Pryde was around, he definitely was. She hated this Stryker guy. When she got around to telling X-Men stories and he came up, she had less than glowing things to say, to be frank.

"For what, kidnapping and killing a few mutants?" Eddie said sarcastically, "Come on. That's like a misdemeanor at best to people in charge," And it seemed like the more deaths you were responsible for, the less time you served than you were supposed to, "He probably got pardoned, or something."

Honestly, aside from the stuff he'd been tied to (attempted murder, kidnapping, torture), Stryker apparently had his own secret goon squad to carry out tons of things that he hadn't been charged for. So... yeah, against mutants? Probably a five-year sentence that he got out early on for good behavior... because there weren't many mutants kept in human prisons to victimize. That was what prisons like The Raft were for.

Eddie and I got into our own discussion, as Jay remained quiet, listening more to what was on TV than to us shit-talk Reverend Stryker. Eventually, he said something to us – one sentence.

"Do you ever think we're evil?"

That stopped Eddie and I in our tracks, just because of the audacity of it. It was rather offensive, and Eddie took it harder than I did, "Why? Because we're mutants? Come on, Icarus. Do you feel evil?"

At that point, I interjected like a smart-aleck, "I mean, personally, I think I'm a piece of shit, but not because I'm a mutant. I'm just a jerk. That's not biology, that's just Bellamy."

That was just all of us, really. For example, Julian Keller was a major piece of work, but again, that was more in tune with my stuff. He was just a jerk. A dumb teenager - not evil. Laura wasn't evil. She'd been forced to kill by those who were evil, and since then, she had done nothing but try to live her life and do something good with what she was capable of. I could have gone on and on about everyone I knew.

"This Garden of Eden is meant for mankind, God's chosen. And the path to Eden is paved swords and serpents. Only the chosen will brave this road to protect it for the rest, from those never meant to partake of this living paradise we call Earth."

Yeah, that sounded like hate-talk to me.

"I just feel like there's something we all have to answer for," Jay said, sounding conflicted.

I felt my brow furrow in irritation, "Right, and if you believe in God, we will be judged... by St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. Not by some guy on TV," Only the people who had been around me to know firsthand had that right. And, depending on who they were, I still had the right to not listen.

Nothing was evil just because it existed, and nothing deserved to be wiped out in its entirety just for being around. That was the line of logic Eddie went with in trying to persuade our troubled classmate, "Dude, were dodos evil? Are whales evil? Are buffalo evil? Are bees evil?"

...I think that was what he was trying to go for with that, at least.

I shook my head and gave a small bit of push-back, "That last one doesn't work for this. Bees are absolutely evil. They make sure plants grow, and their honey is so good... but they'll also try to painfully kill you without you even doing anything. So, they're evil," I felt the need to go back to breakfast and see if there was anything with honey in it.

Eddie slapped frantically in my general direction to get me to stop ruining his platform, "Look, my point is, mutants aren't evil. Sure, there are mutants that do evil shit, just like there are humans that do evil shit. Don't let some dude on TV tell you something that has you questioning yourself and your friends."

Yes, hype-man. I couldn't have said it better myself. Still, it didn't seem to have convinced Jay that much.

I took my shot to try and help, "Look, you know we have a guy on staff to talk to about this stuff now, right?" I asked. Dr. Garrison had been there for a little over a week, and mandatory meetings weren't set yet, so only a handful of students knew about him so far, "Go talk to him about it. It's literally the only thing he's here for. I do it all the time."

-Because I had to. Even so, he didn't need to know that part in the chance that he would actually take me up on that offer.

XxX

Hanging out on the front lawn of the mansion was really awkward when in the distance we could see and hear people picketing just outside. It was a good quarter mile from the front gate to the school itself, and just walking around the front lawn moving from building-to-building, you could hear them going on with their bullshit.

People singing revamped spirituals about how we're all going to hell. Awesome. Just what every kid wants to hear on a Monday morning.

"Could be worse, Bel," Hisako told me as we braved the distance to the gate, "They could be attacking."

A bite of anger gripped my heart at that, "We're going to take that and file it under a list of things titled, 'I wish a motherfucker would.'"

On top of the satisfaction I would take in blasting hostile individuals in the face, we had defenses, and my bestest A.I. friend was our security consultant. Attacking a bunch of stupid kids might have sounded good for opportunistic cowards, but that tune would probably change when a murderbot's chainsaw revved up within earshot of you.

Of course, it made going outside of the school very difficult, which was a problem, because it made catching the shuttle that ran from just outside the school gates to Salem Center a pain in the ass.

None of this stopped me and a handful of cohorts from trying our luck, however, because we were stupid kids, like I said. This particular motley crew included Megan (who came because I said I had a surprise for her), Noriko (who had to go to work in town), David (who wanted to hang out with his girlfriend Nori at the start of her shift), Hisako (who was getting stir crazy on campus), and Megan's teammates Ben and Nicky (who just wanted to go to the store for snacks) from trying our luck.

Fuck their picketing. We needed to go to town, and we were going while there while it was still light out and there were still running goddamn shuttles.

We got to the gate where I found Saberwolf, watching over the premises intently. All of the heckling didn't bother him in the slightest. If anything, he seemed bored. He would have been sleeping if he could have, "How are things, Wolf?" I asked.

"One person attempted to climb this morning," Wolf told me, "He was quickly persuaded that it was a poor idea."

I looked over, and sure enough, there was a little blood on the inside of the wall. There was no body though, and we didn't go under lockdown, so I guess Wolf just roughed him up a bit and threw him back out.

I nodded my approval. Good man... err, A.I., "I would ask you if you wanted to come with us, but you're clearly still on your shift," He normally only had to work night shifts, prowling the institute grounds for anything amiss. But it only made sense that during times like this, he would have to maintain order.

"You are all heading out?" He looked between the six of us, "...I was not given orders to keep students from leaving. Very well. I would advise caution, however."

I looked over at my present company, waiting for someone to decide to head back to the school. No one did. It looked like we were doing this, "Thanks, Wolf. Open the gate. We'll take our chances."

He opened the gate for us, and it was like a dog when its master crinkled a bag of treats. We didn't even make it out before they crowded it, making a point to keep from breaching the perimeter, lest Wolf have any excuse to tear their asses up. I would have loved to see it, but alas, no one was that dumb.

It still aggravated me to the core, and I took the opportunity to try and make things even worse... because stupid kid.

I stepped forward with a script already in my head and spoke up, ignoring the jeers, "You've been through this with the wolf already. This wall is the gun line," I said, stealing lines from the movie 'Life', slightly altered, "It runs this whole property. You are now outside of the gun line."

I needed someone to finish the line to egg me on further, and Nori didn't let me down, "Tell 'em about the gun line, boss."

I tried to fight down the smile Nori's playing along with my blatant reference threatened to put on my face, "Say what you want, but if you step through that gate, or over that wall without permission, you will be shot. You trip and fall through the bars, you will be shot. You spit, you pee, you so much as stick your johnson through the gate or over the wall, you will be shot."

I was daring-, no, I was begging anyone to call my bluff. We were taught to de-escalate encounters with civilians, but to hell with that. As stupid as it would have been, I would have welcomed nothing more than an outright donnybrook.

Of course, the mob didn't like the odds when it seemed like I didn't give two shits about their numerical superiority. Also, they weren't sure if Saberwolf would back us up. If they weren't afraid of us throwing our powers around, they were definitely afraid of being torn to shreds by him.

They parted like the Red Sea. It was splendid. We stepped right onto the shuttle without further issue, and as the driver pulled off, I rolled open the window and let off one more parting comment for my adoring public, "And if ONE of my packages from Amazon doesn't make it through because of you people, you don't have to worry about any kind of hell, because there will be hell to pay!"

I idly thought to myself as I sat down next to Megan that maybe that had been a little too much, "Think you scared them enough, Bel?" She said.

"I don't care," I grumbled, glaring out of the window, "Between the five of you, we have a girl who can make them hallucinate with a flap of her wings, a girl who can cover herself in freaky energy armor, a chick that has to wear limiters to keep from chucking electricity everywhere, a dude with a genius brain that knows everything everyone in the immediate vicinity knows, a dude with a flaming head, and a fucking werewolf."

Who in their right mind would mess with that? Even if they did outnumber us 40-to-6, every single one of us were good for handling at least 3, and at most, who knew?

"I'm not a werewolf, Bel," Nicky popped his head up from the seat behind me, pleading the case for his mutation.

I rolled my eyes. Specifics, "They don't know that, Nicky," Nor did they likely care.

Noriko scoffed from across the aisle where she sat with David, "Yeesh. You got a rock in your shoe or something? You are surly today."

"I'm surly every day. And that's why you all fucking love me."

David, ever the thoughtful one, hadn't enjoyed my lack of tact like Noriko had, "Still, I don't think escalating anything with people like that was the best idea. That's not what we're taught. We've got to be the bigger people."

My snark level had been turned up to 11 by this point, "I already am the bigger person, because I'm not spending my day standing outside of their house, school, or workplace telling them God wants them to die. Everything else that makes me better is just a bonus at that point."

Hisako gave everyone context that I didn't give her clearance to, "He's just extra-pissed because he had plans with Little Miss Pixie that fell through because of the picketers," I only scowled deeper at the truth.

It was announced that day that we could not leave the premises of Xavier's on our own, for fear that anti-mutant mobs outside would take a shot at us. Again, I wished a motherfucker would. It would likely be the last thing they ever did. Although, killing regular idiots would be different from offing U-Men and Reavers. Also, doing it in front of my school friends would probably go badly, even in self-defense. Not all of them knew how little I cared for the lives of my enemies, and most of them would react badly to it.

Megan reached over and ran her thumb across my cheek, the damnable way that she knew I liked, "Oh, Bel. It's okay," She cooed to pacify me.

"It's not okay," I insisted, trying to remain as grumpy as possible, despite wanting to relax into her touch, "I wanted to do something nice for you for once, with just us, and I can't because we need to be at least four-deep to leave campus."

"Aww..." Everyone else droned, trying and succeeding at getting under my skin.

"Shut up!" I snapped in return, not needing all of their crap.

Two's company, three's a crowd. Well, what did that make six? Not romantic, that was for sure.

XxX

It didn't take long for there to be fallout from my perfectly justifiable actions during my trip into town. Almost the moment we made it back onto campus, I got mind-buzzed to go to the headmaster's office.

Once I walked in, without saying anything, Mister Summers turned on the TV where he had the 6 o'clock news from that evening saved. There I was, standing at the head of my group, running my mouth, profanity bleeped. It was a twenty-second soundbite.

"Huh... didn't know there were news cameras there," I commented after the story had run its course.

"There weren't," Mister Summers deadpanned, "Someone took that on their phone."

Really? That was good video photography for an amateur on a phone, "I'm a minor, and they didn't blur my face. They didn't get permission for that. I'm suing."

Mister Summers sighed at having to deal with my troublesome self, "Don't antagonize the protesters, Bellamy."

"Why?" I droned. They were antagonizing us, "If you tell me to turn the other cheek, I'm walking out right now. I don't care how much detention I get."

He raised an eyebrow, implying that he had planned on no such thing. It didn't lessen his disappointment, "Of course not. If someone goes to hit you, hit back. But Bellamy, things like this make the school look bad. You used your powers as a threat."

"I threaten to shoot people in the face every day," Sometimes multiple people, multiple times. Sometimes I said it to friends. Sometimes I actually did it.

I could feel Mister Summers roll his eyes behind his visor, "And you don't see a problem with that?"

I paused before giving what would have been my obvious wrong answer, "…If I say yes, can I not have detention?"

"No," He walked over and sat down in front of me, hunched with his hands folded in front of his knees, "This sort of thing will only give anti-mutant personalities more ammunition to bring people to their side."

Oh yes, because I would be the tipping point that set the masses against us in droves, "If that was all it took to send people flocking to people like Reverend Stryker, they wouldn't have needed much convincing in the first place."

"You're not going to admit you were wrong, are you?"

"Yes. I was wrong."

"…It doesn't sound like you're very sorry about it."

That's because I wasn't, and I told him as much, "I'm not going to apologize for trying to check people who say my friends are subhuman and deserve to be smote for being born."

It wasn't a mob of dumb high school kids who thought being edgy and offensive to others was cool, it was a group of full-grown adults who were legitimately mad that there was a school teaching kids how to not kill themselves and everyone around them with their God-given powers. No one in that crowd outside of the gates telling us all to go to hell was younger than 25. Being stupid should have more consequences the older you are.

...Yes, I realize that sounds hypocritical, given all of the dumb things I found myself involved in, but there wasn't one mistake I made that I didn't wind up paying for in some way, shape, or form.

XxX

Local news was one thing, but within 12 hours of me running my mouth outside of Xavier's, my face was plastered all over every station that could obtain the footage. It was visual wildfire. It had gone viral, if you will, and beyond.

Everyone in school was all over the news all week long, which didn't do anything for my temper, having to deal with everyone's looks and comments on whether what I did was awesome or stupid, the right thing or the wrong thing, helpful or harmful, depending on who was talking to me.

I say 'talking to me', because I usually stopped replying by about nine in the morning. Most of my days were spent communicating in scowls, glares, head gestures, and monosyllabic grunts. Some would say there was little difference from how I usually interacted with most of the school.

Eddie had come to find me after my last class of the day so he could show me the latest stuff he could find in his social media feeds, "Man, Bel, you really messed up this time. They're burning effigies of you in downtown Manhattan."

I didn't care about it, but he'd waited all day to show me, so I humored him, "Note to self: don't go any farther south than Harlem next time I go to New York," I said while yawning, "Besides, Manhattan is the part of New York everybody goes to, so I'm sure the concentration of idiots is that much higher."

Eddie was a good friend. He was angrier for me than I was for myself, "It's bullshit that every anti-mutant crack pot in the country is going to use you as the poster boy to hype their cause."

"Dude, what?"

He looked at me like I had been living under a rock, "Haven't you been listening to what assholes like Stryker are saying? Even just today?" I shook my head no, "They're saying that you're the face of what's wrong with the next generation of mutants."

Oh really? I rolled my eyes at the concept, "As opposed to the old generation that they loved so much… and most people didn't know anything about until a few years ago."

"When you put it that way, it sounds stupid."

"Because it is stupid. This whole thing is stupid," I stopped in front of the elevator to the lower levels where I was supposed to be serving my detention that day, "Now I've got to help out down there. I don't think Cyclops will stay and let you hang out while I'm cleaning the hangar, unless you want to help."

Eddie's eyes went wide and he backed away from the elevator as if it were full of snakes, "That's just fine. Me and manual labor don't mix very well. I'll catch you later."

I grunted and bid him farewell before getting in.

XxX

Mister Summers was a motherfucker.

My detentions varied day-by-day. Once, I had to help out in the library with Karma, the Xi'an lady that had been on about Megan and me before. Another day, I had to be the living practice dummy for everyone in self-defense class when they were doing throws. It was never the same thing twice, and it always sucked.

The worst was saved for last. Friday afternoon after class, I had to clean the whole goddamn hanger. That didn't mean taking a mop to the floor, or whatever. It did mean I had to move shit all over the place, and then clean all of the vehicles, Blackbird included. Then I had to run maintenance on the goddamn plane. It all took hours. Everything had shut down for the night by the time I finished. Everyone was in bed.

I sent Megan a text, letting her know I was free, because she had asked me to. It was too late to do anything together, and she was probably asleep, but it was a courtesy.

I'd missed prime hangout time with my friends and my girl, and because my body was a solar power plant, I wasn't tired enough to sleep, meaning I would be up all night to remain pissed. I bitched out loud all the way from the main mansion building to the boy's dorms, not that anyone was around to hear it.

My night didn't wind up a complete bust though, as before I made it inside, I caught a glimpse of a lithe figure moving fast across the lawn. I tensed for a fight, but it was moving away from the buildings and into the woods. Whatever it was didn't want to fight, and Saberwolf hadn't gone after it yet, which had to mean that it was someone from here, didn't it?

Either way, I made to follow, and the individual tried to hide from me, then outrun me. Big mistake. They made it over the wall when I followed and landed in front of them to stop them, "Aha! Gotcha, bitc-! Laura?"

There Laura stood, with a bag packed to last her a few days, and an expression of being caught red-handed.

I looked at the bag, then at her, and put two-and-two together, "You're not ditching the school again, are you?" In my own self-centered mind, I felt that if she was, it was because of me.

"No!" She protested a bit too loudly before lowering her voice, "I must go to New York. Just for a short time. If I asked to leave, the staff would ask questions," Questions that she clearly wasn't too keen on answering.

I immediately came to a quick conclusion, "Is this a Facility thing?"

"No. It is a personal matter, but it does not involve that; at least, I do not think so," She shook her head clear of the thought, "I was recently contacted by a man claiming to be my brother."

I kept waiting for the punchline to a joke that never came, "...But you're a clone."

"Yes. That is what confused me. And Logan is away on a mission. I cannot speak with him, and he isn't answering the number I have for him. I don't know when he will be back, and he will only be there for so long," She reached into her jacket pocket and handed me a letter.

It was in Japanese of all things. Being that I was still trying to learn it, I could only decipher ten-percent of it, and even that was dodgy. I had to take Laura's word for it, "I didn't even know you knew Japanese."

"I am fluent in many languages, Bellamy," Laura said as she tucked the letter away and shifted the bag on her back, "I will return in a few days. I cannot guarantee that I will return before Monday morning."

'-So, don't go with me,' was what she was trying to imply.

It didn't matter if things were weird between us at the moment. I couldn't just let her fuck off to New York City by herself, "Look, I know I'm not your favorite person in the world right now, but I can't let you just go off alone. And if you really feel like you need to go, well, I've got your back."

I thought she would argue. She had before. But she accepted quickly, without a fight, "...We should get going, then."

And there it was. We were off on another whimsical field trip. Seriously, Eddie was due one of these by this point. I'd gone on at least one with all of my teammates except for him. How did he keep avoiding these?

While Salem Center didn't really have a cab service that ran after midnight, you know what did? Uber. And amazingly enough, there were multiple drivers willing to head out and take two teenagers to New York City in the dead of night. It occurred to me that they might rob us, but they would have gotten the short end of that stick if that had been their intention.

It left Laura and I sharing the backseat of a car for an hour-long drive, with a driver more concerned with their music than making small talk with their passengers. While that was fine, as Laura wasn't much of a conversationalist, and I didn't like talking to randoms just to pass the time, it didn't do anything to clear the air between us.

I eventually decided to take my chances, because it was going to be a rough weekend if we couldn't even talk, "Is talking forbidden outside of need-to-know stuff, or can I just shoot the shit with you?" I said, watching Laura as she gazed out of the window at the passing sights, "Even if you have problems being around me, I did like hanging out with you. You're good company."

Instead of shirking away, she turned met my side glance with a strong, direct gaze, "You know why I find being around you difficult."

I had to wince, "Yeah, I know," We'd already had that talk. If I could be a snarky dick, Laura could cut to the bone by how frank she could be.

I wanted to say I was sorry, but what would I be apologizing for? What would I even say? Something like, 'Oh, sorry for breaking your fucking heart every time my girlfriend comes up around you,' or how about, 'Sorry that you can probably smell the sex on me after every time I'm with her, even when I take twenty-minute showers. Just ignore that, and how it makes you feel.'

"Did you want to talk about it?" I asked as the two of us rode along, music playing quietly in the car.

Laura kept her hands shoved in her pockets, her focus set on getting somewhere she could get a ride, "I do, but I don't. I don't know what to say. I already know where you stand."

"You should try cleaning out the hangar in the basement," I remarked, trying to bring some levity to the conversation, "You have plenty of time to think about shit to say while picking up after the X-Men. Yay... fucking detention."

"For what it is worth, I am on your side," Laura said, "I find the school's policies to be... confusing," She finished with a furrowed brow.

I had my own gripes, but the way she spoke, it sounded like she'd been thinking about hers for a while, "How so?"

"Everyone is unique, and should take pride in their peculiarities, but should strive to fit in and be normal," Laura started to explain, "Students are learning to defend themselves from those who would harm them, but we should not fight. All students are equal, but it is clear that those with abilities that can be applied in combat are held in higher regard."

The more she said, the more of a point it seemed like she had. Maybe she had felt that way before? She didn't talk a lot. Times like this made me remember how smart Laura actually was, and how much thinking she probably did keeping to herself while the rest of us acted like idiots.

Eventually, the New York skyline came into sight, which meant we needed some course of action plotted, "When we get to the city, I will begin searching for Daken," She looked at me as though she were rethinking her plans on the fly, "I didn't expect support, but since you are here, it would be foolish not to use you."

'Daken'. That must have been the guy's name. I gave Laura a thumbs up, guessing how this would go, "I'll hang back and come in guns a'blazing if anything kicks off," Why not keep things simple until the situation on the ground demanded a change? "Hopefully this meeting with your brother goes more peacefully than my meeting with my son."

"To my knowledge, I do not end up destroying the world in the future, so we may be safe on that front."

I did a double-take in her direction, "D-did you just make a joke?" Sure enough, there was a smile tugging at her lips. I couldn't help but smile too, "Oh, I get it. The claws come out when it's just me around. You must think I'm a pushover."

"I have pushed you over several times in the past."

"Now you're just bringing up old stuff."

I didn't know if Laura was acting to try and put her best foot forward possible, but with her trying to tease me, it felt good to think that we could get back to some kind of normalcy of being friends.

XxX

Everything happened fast. By the time we were dropped off, it was one in the morning. Laura had Uber-ed us to Alphabet City. Specifically, to Mutant Town.

I'd never been. Whenever anyone talked about Mutant Town, they always tried to make it sound like the center of a mutant cultural renaissance, where all the thinkers and shakers of the species laid their roots that would grow into the trees that would influence the world.

If you took into account that Mutant Town had the highest concentration of mutants in the world, then sure, statistically there was some accuracy there. But if you wanted the facts, Mutant Town was poor, tightly-packed, and shifty. It felt like any ghetto you could imagine in a big city like New York. The only difference was you had guys and girls walking and flying around with all kinds of powers. Instead of getting stuck up with a gun or a knife, you had an even chance of someone trying to rob you with flaming hands or a poisonous touch.

Sleepy, boring Salem Center, it was not. It was way less chill than San Francisco. And as crazy as Los Angeles could get, things usually started shutting down there after a certain point after midnight.

There were still people out doing their thing. I spotted at least three different clubs in plain sight still bustling in the few minutes we'd been walking, "You think your brother-person is going to be in Manhattan?"

"It would be the easiest place for him to blend in," Laura said, not sparing a second glance at the sights and sounds bombarding us, "If he is anything like myself and Logan, he would not like unwanted attention."

I looked down an alley we were passing and swore I could see someone getting a blowjob. I kind of wanted to check twice to make sure, but then again, I really didn't, "Well, this is the place to go if you don't want to stand out. Did he leave a clue, or something? How are you supposed to find him?"

"The scent on the letter he sent is strong. If he is here, I should be able to locate him."

Really? Because from just what I could smell, there were a lot of scents to sort through, and I didn't even have enhanced senses, "'Here' as in Mutant Town, 'here' as in Manhattan, or 'here' as in New York?"

"...Yes."

"Goddamn you, woman," I muttered at her smartass remark. She'd been paying too much attention to me when I popped off to others, "Now what? Do we look for a hotel, or something?"

Laura stopped and looked around suspiciously. At what, I didn't know, but it made me feel paranoid, "I thought you normally didn't sleep."

"I don't, but you do," I specified, keeping my guard up, just in case, "I'll just stay up and stand guard, or, fuck, do homework or something, I guess," I shifted the backpack I had over my shoulder. Laura's bag probably had clothes and shit in it. Mine just had books and papers, "Maybe if we do go back late, the teachers will still let me turn in my work."

Laura wasn't a functional insomniac like yours truly. She could go without sleep for a while, but it wasn't advised. If things turned intense soon, it was for the best that she was running with a full stamina meter, and she recognized as much, "Okay, find us somewhere to stay. I will pay."

I didn't know she had money.

After our little walkthrough of Mutant Town, our destination wound up taking us out of Mutant Town to find a place to rest.

My phone brought up two seedy places that I wouldn't be caught dead in, before we finally ended up at a decent hotel outside of the neighborhood. Thanks, Google Maps.

By 'decent', I mean that they more than likely changed and washed the ejaculant out of the sheets in between guests. That was the bare minimum I asked from my living arrangements – no bedbugs, and no jizz on my sheets.

I even asked Laura when we entered our room if the two beds had clean sheets, because she would know. She gave me the all-clear, which was good enough for me. I flopped my back on the bed closest to the door and kicked my shoes off. Laura was more reserved in sitting down on the edge of hers.

"So, now what?" I asked. My eyes were affixed straight up as I could hear Laura undressing not five feet away from me. I knew she knew what modesty was, but hey, if she felt comfortable enough to do that around me, why not?

She yawned and got underneath the covers while I counted the dimples on the ceiling, "Please make sure that I wake up at 7:00 o'clock. I do not know how long it will take to find Daken. The earlier we begin, the better."

I scoffed as I popped my shirt off to try and get more comfortable myself. Laura was giving me far too much credit, "Ain't no 'we' here, Laura. I have no idea what I'm doing. It's all you," Hey, a good leader knew when to defer to his teammates. She was a trained tracker with the senses to bolster that training. I would follow her lead.

I kept my mouth shut and browsed about on my phone, trying to keep quiet for a few hours to let Laura get some sleep. It didn't take long. Girl was efficient, I'll give her that. That she could just turn off and shut down in such a weird place made her better than me. I wasn't even trying to sleep, and I still felt uneasy.

I lost track of time until a shadow eventually stood in front of our door instead of moving past it, and I felt my paranoia rise. We were in a giant city all alone, looking for a guy claiming to be Laura's brother that we didn't know anything about. People hanging around our door too long set off alarms.

Carefully, I got up and silently crept to the door. I clenched my fist tight, bringing a glow to it. If someone was on the other side looking to get froggy, they were going to get shot down before they jumped. As I eased to the peephole, ready for action, I expected to see some kind of armed thugs on the other side.

Imagine my surprise when I saw Megan standing in the hall, looking very uncertain.

What. The. Fuck.

I pulled my phone from my pocket and punched out a quick message, sent directly to her.

Pix... why are you outside this door?

She jumped when her phone went off, and I watched her face change when she read the text, "Bel?"

I undid the door chain and opened the door to reveal myself. She seemed relieved when she saw that I was still fully clothed, "Megan, what are you doing here?" I asked quietly.

"What are you doing here?" She said in return, "When you told me you were done with detention and on the way back to the dorms, I went out to see you, but you went and left with... Laura."

That had been hours ago. We'd been moving for a while, "Did you follow us all the way from school?" She nodded shyly. Wow. She had plenty of power in those wings of hers, "You should have called me. I would have told you where I was going."

She shook her head. That wasn't good enough apparently, "Why didn't you?"

"I thought it was too late to blow up your phone," I had honestly planned to call her in the morning. Her and the rest of my team, so none of them freaked out when they didn't see me around for a day or two.

Megan replied with hurt in her voice, "You sent the first text earlier," She said, "I don't understand. Every time I look in your eyes it seems like you feel guilty. For a week, you've been trying to be better, or make things up to me. And now this?"

I caught myself feeling it right then. Ever since the thing with Laura had come to light, I'd felt bad. I felt like it was my fault she felt the way she did. I felt like it was my fault for putting Megan in an odd position between us.

I could have updated her. There had been plenty of time, if my thoughts hadn't been so laser-focused, "All of this started happening really fast," Nothing but excuses. I was awful at relationships.

Megan tried to look past me into the dark, "What is happening? Is Laura in there?"

"Yes, she is. In her own bed," I made sure to specify. Megan didn't think I was cheating, did she? Oh, God, I thought we'd been over this – twice in some ways, "Come on. I'll let Laura explain in the morning, but you're not staying in this seedy hallway all night," Instead of coming in when I opened the door wider, she backed away, "Pix?"

She wanted no part of nicknames, and the thought of sharing a room with me and 'the other woman' was too much for her to bear. She gave me a shove and then ran down the hallway. I stumbled back to my bed to grab my shirt and shoes before I went after her, but by the time I got outside, all I got to see was her flying off, faster than I could follow on foot, even with my powers. I wasn't going to catch up unless she wanted me to.

I paced around on the sidewalk in front of the hotel with my hands on my head, "Fuck, fuck, fuck," I just kept cursing in a hiss before I finally got on my phone to try and get in touch.

This had been brewing for a while, since the summer. I'd seen it. I'd tried to avert it, but I didn't have the tools or the intelligence to stop it. Did it have to happen in the heart of New York City, though?

I got answering machine. Not even three rings first, "Megan, please come back. This isn't what you think. Just talk to me," As bad as I clearly was at that, despite my gift for running my mouth, "Just... call me, please."

I hung up and stared at the sky that was beginning to brighten. At least she wouldn't be out alone in the dark.

When I made it back to the room, Laura was awake and sitting up, covered in shadow as she looked out the window through the open blinds, "I am sorry, Bellamy," She said without looking at me.

She heard all of that, did she? Of course she did. Even if I'd tried being quiet, with Laura's hearing, the moment Megan took off running it probably sounded like stampeding, "It's not your fault. I'm the one who came here in the first place. I'm the one that forgot to smarten anyone up before we left."

Laura looked over at me and shook her head, "No, I was aware that Megan had been following us through Mutant Town," I felt my eyebrows raise in surprise. She just tapped at her nose in explanation, "I did not see fit to say anything at the time. I figured she would come to you soon enough."

She did. But even if we had seen Megan on the street, or in the hotel, I didn't think things would have ended much better. And if it didn't blow up now, it would have blown up later.

"I have to go find her," I said, gathering up my bag, "Maybe she went back to school," One could only hope, "Maybe she'll call me back, or at least send me a text. But I've got to make sure she's okay."

"I do not think she wants to see you," Laura, with a gift for pointing out the obvious.

I smiled at Laura grimly, "You know, I kind of got that feeling as well," The smile faded when I remembered what I'd come for in the first place, "Are you going to be okay on your own?"

She didn't seem concerned with splitting off, "I had not planned for help when I had left. This only puts me back to my original plan."

True enough, I had been the one to stick my big nose into her goings on. I didn't want to leave her alone, but jeez, she would have an easier time making her way around the city than I would, "If anything happens, you call me. Got that? I'll let you know if I find Megan, and we can meet up. Maybe we can get this all hashed out or something... I don't fucking know."

One solution at a time, that is, if we could find one or the other in the first place.

XxX

"What is wrong with you, you idiot!?"

I winced at the volume that Hisako yelled at me with over the phone. After my epic fail in dealing with Megan, I decided to smarten up the rest of my team as to what was going on, just in case they wondered why they wouldn't find me all weekend. Hisako was the only one who picked up bright and early on a Saturday morning.

That led to me explaining far too much about what had led to where I was now. Perhaps I wanted some advice from the woman that I trusted to be frank with me more than anyone else? I didn't ask for the ringing in my ears, though, "Hold on, are you pissed about me being in New York out of the blue, or the thing with Megan?"

"Yes!" I wished she could see me roll my eyes. Again, someone who spent too much time around me if such a smartass answer was on their tongue. Hisako sighed and let her temper wash aside after that point, "God, I don't know what to do to help you. As if I would know where Megan would go in New York. You would know better than I would."

One would think so. The most I ever remember talking about New York with Megan was when she said she'd like to go to the Dazzler concert the next time she played the Barclays Center. Other than that, which wasn't going to help me any, nothing.

"Do you want me to keep all of this a secret?" Hisako offered. Attitude aside, she always had my back, "Either way, you're going to eat that detention when you get back."

"The hell I am," I snapped, "Curfew rules ended when those protesters left. Xavier's is a school, not jail."

"It might as well be for you when the staff finds out you went to New York at 1 a.m.," Hisako pestered before wrapping the call up, "Alright, I'll tell Eddie and Ruth. Just keep us in the loop, Bel." She said my name with emphasis, showing the lack of faith she had in me to do so without being told to.

I stood up on the rooftop as I prepared to get moving again, "Yeah, yeah, sure. Use the group chat. We should be back by Monday morning, I hope," That was what I would aim for, at least, "Later, Hisako."

"Bye, Bel. I really hope you can fix this. Homecoming is in a few weeks. It'd really suck for you to have to go all by yourself."

"You're telling me," I said before hanging up. It was bright and early, so at least Megan wasn't flying around in the dead of night, "How hard could it be to find a girl with pink hair and wings?"

XxX

It was really fucking hard to find a girl with pink hair and wings in New York!

The streets were an endless maze. To get any kind of vantage point, I had to stay up on the roofs, but that kept me from scrutinizing the throng of people keeping the sidewalks busy. When I searched in Mutant Town, I saw five people with wings. None of them were Megan. I counted two dozen people with pink hair searching New York proper. None of them were Megan.

I even resorted to asking passers-by if they had seen her. I got an endless amount of 'no', most without people even taking a glance at the picture I tried to show on the phone, most without anyone even hearing out my request before they walked past me.

"Man, where's someone like Spider-Man when everything's not exploding?" I complained to myself. Maybe that motherfucker had seen her? No one else has, "...A city of 8 million people, and nobody gives enough of a crap to remember if they saw a literal pixie."

If only I had the GPS thing in her phone that I made everybody on the Paladins get.

Wait. I was an idiot.

The way that app worked was by putting their numbers in and getting a location. I could track them without them getting it themselves and linking up with me somehow. I just made them all do it so we could find each other if need be.

It would be a breach of privacy, but I would take that chance and deal with it later. It had been four or five hours. She wouldn't fly off on me twice, would she?

Nah. She might get pissed and pixie dust me the second time, but she wouldn't fly off again.

Central Park and Belvedere Castle, an itty-bitty stone castle built on an elevated position with a sweet view. I hustled my way south as fast as possible before she decided to leave and I'd have to wait until she stopped again.

The place had been closed for renovations, but that didn't really matter to someone who could fly. As I approached, I could see her sitting up high, her knees pulled to her chest. She saw me coming. I made sure that walked around until she could see me.

Once we made eye contact, she high and I low, I just waited. If she didn't want to see me, she'd let me know quickly, either by telling me off, or leaving. She didn't acknowledge me, but she didn't ignore me either. I took it as a sign and boosted myself up to her level with a concussive blast at the ground.

I didn't even dare sit with her. Neither of us said anything for a while. Eventually, it felt so tense that I had to say something – anything, "Let me just start by saying that I am so glad you didn't leave Manhattan," Perhaps a half-joke wasn't the best way to start.

When she responded, I'd never heard her sound so bitter, "I thought you wanted me to go back to school."

"I never said I wanted you to go back," I told her, "I was surprised you were here, but I'm glad you are. At least, I would be... if..." I trailed off, feeling lame.

'If' what? I didn't know what to say that wouldn't make things worse. I wished she were angry. I knew how to deal with that; let her get it out until she ran out of steam, and then try to actually talk to her after she'd had a chance to vent. But Megan wasn't just straight-up angry, she was hurt. She didn't want to yell, she wanted to feel better. And I was hardly equipped to serve as proper emotional support to someone who was hurting, especially when it was about me.

Megan kept her eyes outward on the expansive view of the park and nearby pond, "Do you want to break up with me?" She finally asked.

I was stunned at the sudden, "What? No! Of course, I don't," If I wanted to break up, I liked to think I wasn't enough of a pussy that I couldn't say it to her face. Everyone deserved that much of a courtesy, "Why would you think that?"

At that, she turned to actually look at me, "It's so hard to get a handle on you, Bel," The girl wore her emotions on her face. She seemed vexed, "You're so good with dangerous stuff, and I think you're one of the strongest people I know, but you're so weird about yourself."

I took her talking to me as an invitation to get closer and sit down with her, "What do you mean?"

"I know you think I'm going to dump you eventually."

I winced. How did she know I'd said that? I only said it to Hisako and Cessily. Hisako would never let my shit slip, and while Cess had admittedly been 'Team Laura', she wouldn't do anything to actively interfere.

At the moment though, denying things would do no good. If Megan was talking about it, she already knew, "That's not entirely accurate," I decided that if she knew that much, she might as well get the full scope of what I was thinking, "It's not that I think you will... it's that eventually, I think you should."

She seemed to have trouble wrapping her head around my mindset, "Why would you think that? I thought you didn't want to break up!"

"I don't want to!" I exclaimed in my defense, "I don't want you to dump me. I just think..."

Megan cut me off with a scoff before I could articulate my thoughts, "-What? You think I'm too good for you?" She had meant to be sarcastic, but when I didn't deny it, her demeanor changed, "You can't be serious. You do?"

I gave her an empty shrug. It was the best I had, "I haven't really kept it a secret. I just never said it straight-up like that. I want you for as long as you'll have me, but I never thought I'd get to keep you."

Some girls would take that as a compliment. For others, it would piss them off. Megan seemed appalled, like she pitied the complete lack of self-esteem it took to come to such a conclusion, "Bellamy, that's awful! How long have you felt that way?"

I smiled at her. It was a bitter, sardonic thing. I could feel the cynical humor forcing the corners of my mouth to tug up, "Since the day you had Hope help you ask me out," In other words, from the very beginning, "Ask anybody on the Paladins. I always thought you were too good for me. You're so sweet, and you're optimistic. And I'm a bitter, sarcastic dick."

"So that means you don't deserve me?"

"I deserve you... I just don't deserve to keep you," I gestured to our surroundings; where we were, and what led us to being there, "This whole thing just proves that, doesn't it? I can run off in the middle of the night to get myself into God knows what without even thinking about calling you first. It didn't even cross my mind."

Rounding it to why she was upset in the first place prompted her to stare down at her lap, "Bel, that was careless and inconsiderate, but it's not..." She stopped and took a shaky breath before trying to meet my eyes, "I know you weren't cheating. It's just my own stupid brain trying to convince me. Ever since the summer, I think about it when I'm with you. Like, some weird little voice just brings it up out of the blue, and I know better!"

I wanted to reach out and hold her hand, wrap her up in my arms and hug her. Her wings flicked when I reached out for her, as if it were a defensive reaction, as if she had flinched. I stopped cold. It felt like a punch to the stomach.

The way she looked at me was uncertain. The next words out of her mouth were as quiet as a whisper, "I think I should go back to school. When will you be back?"

I tried to move forward; put everything to the back of my mind, "Monday at the latest, I'm sure. If Laura can't find who she's looking for here, I'll get her to give it up," If Laura couldn't find this 'Daken' guy, I would carry her ass home over my shoulder. She could try to claw me for it all she wanted to, "I can call you every night to keep you-."

Megan quickly shook her head before I even finished, "-No. You don't have to do that," She insisted, a little too readily to be comfortable with. The smile she tried to paste onto her face to reassure me was hollow enough to do the opposite, "It's okay. We'll... we'll just talk when you get back."

I didn't feel confident about that, either that it would work out for the best when it happened, or that it would even happen in the first place. But that was her choice. She dealt with my dumbass choices all the time. I could spot her putting off a relationship talk until she was more ready to cut to the heart of the matter.

She stood up first. It immediately felt colder without her presence right next to me, "I don't know how I was thinking this would go," She said, hugging herself as she paced a bit, "I thought it would be easier to... I don't know."

"What?"

Megan wanted to say more. It was obvious. She just couldn't get it out, "I... don't worry, we'll talk about it Monday," She started to take off before stopping in her ascent to look back at me one more time, "Be careful."

I watched her fly off until I couldn't see her past the buildings anymore. The pit in my stomach didn't go away. I just plopped my hat further down on my head and sighed. I had to let it go for now. That shitstorm would be waiting for whenever I got back to Xavier's. It wasn't going anywhere.

Meanwhile, there was a can of big, fat worms to open right where I was. My ass was deposited right in the middle of NYC, with my trouble-magnet of a teammate searching for someone shady. I pulled out my phone to call Laura and let her know I'd found Megan and was coming back.

One problem at a time, I guess.

And that's the chapter, guys.

So, this has nothing to do with writing, but I got my nose broken (that hasn't happened in a while), and did… something to my right hamstring the last independent wrestling show I had in February. All within five minutes of each other in the main event, so I still had to keep going for 20 more minutes.

I guess I was due. I haven't gotten fucked up in a while, and it's not awful. I mean, my nose still has its proper shape, and I can run and jump (through excruciating pain) after a few days of my knee giving out every so often, so hey!

…How old is too old to be getting one's body torn up before it decides it isn't going to take it anymore? Because 27 can't be it, right?

Anyway, that's all I've got for you for now. Until the next time when things rightly pop off in New York… our boy's in the news, and is in the media capital of the U.S. with his bullet-sponge of a teammate.

That's sure to end well.

Kenchi out.