Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or X-Men. So, House of X went down in the comic world. That shit was kind of nuts. I'm ready for whatever the hell comes next there, so yeah, mission accomplished, Hickman.

Chapter 33: The Cure For What Ails You

Sometimes you find yourself just wondering what it all means. Why things happen the way they do, and how you got to where you are. Usually, when you had a lot of down time to just think, and when you did, that line of thought just braided, to the point that you were dead to the world.

You normally didn't get a choice of when or where this sort of thing happened. It could happen anywhere, including inside of Men's Warehouse in the mall at 4 in the afternoon.

Eddie snapping his fingers in my face got me to break out of my internal musings, "You alright, Sol?" He asked, "You look like you're searching for all of life's answers in that rack of ties."

I looked from Eddie to the aforementioned ties that I seemingly found the face of God in, "I... am very confused."

"About what?"

The breakup with Megan. The vision of the explosion at Field Day that didn't happen. Jay being a weirdo, and Laura's warning about him. Laura coming onto me.

"Let me make you a list," I muttered. There were too many things occupying space in my mind. I turned to my friend only to freeze once I saw him in full, "...What the fuck are you wearing?"

Eddie grinned and struck a pose in his peculiar outfit, "Dude, this leather suit is so choice. I look slick."

I gave him a once over, eyebrow raised skeptically, "Sure, if you dig looking like Eddie Murphy from 'Raw'." I said, reaching out to touch the fabric of the suit, "Can't imagine that thing breathes very well. Good luck trying to get lucky when you're smelling like a sweaty wreck by the end of the night."

Eddie's smile quickly fell, "...I see your point, and value your input," He glared at his suit and then at me, "See? This is why you need be paying attention while we're picking suits! Colossus would have just let me walk out of the store with this thing without a word!"

Mister Rasputin frowned at Eddie's projection of blame for his own fashion decisions, "Is your choice. I cannot tell you what to wear... even if I think is awful."

Eddie continued to complain about his suit, wishing to switch it out with a more normal one before it was too late, and I couldn't focus back on my own b.s., thus putting me in a sour mood, "Why am I here?" I eventually said.

Eddie stopped rifling through suits long enough to spare me a glance, "The girls are getting dresses. We're getting suits. Duh."

That wasn't what I meant, and I knew he knew it, "It's common knowledge I don't want to go to the goddamn Homecoming dance. Why did you all get me for this?" I was literally dragged off of campus from my room by the entire squad just to go to the mall.

"Team bonding," Mister Rasputin cut in, setting his large hand on my shoulder as he smiled down at me, "I know you're down, Bellamy, but is not good to shut yourself away. I already commit to pay for outfit for you all, but... is still your choice."

That certainly put me in quite the situation, "...Thank you," I groused.

It was all I could say in return, given that I had proper home training, and that was what you said when someone did something nice for you, even if you didn't really want it. Something thoughtful like paying for your entire suit for Homecoming. How a nice guy like Mister Rasputin got stuck being the chief male role model for two scoundrels like Eddie and I was a marvel.

So, there it was. I was going to be press-ganged into attending the dance. Eddie would easily be able to get Hisako and Ruth onboard into getting me there. To fight it would be an exercise in futility, "...This is going to be miserable. Pixie's gonna be there, surrounded by her chick bodyguards, and half the school thinks I'm a philanderer."

Eddie rolled his eyes at my doom-bringer soothsaying, "Sol, the place is going to be packed full of kids, all shapes and sizes, with loud ass music and weird lights. What are the chances that you and Pixie get anything more than a glance at each other?"

Clearly, he hadn't been paying attention to our collective fortunes thus far in our friendship, "You want to put money on that?"

Eddie backed down slightly from his certainty that things at the dance would go smoothly, "No, because I don't put it past you to find her yourself just to win the bet."

"Look at it this way," I said, trying to make light of a situation I didn't want to be in, "Either you win five dollars, or the money you lose goes toward your entertainment for the evening when I either, a) get punch thrown in my face, b) get punched in the face, or c) get thrown into punch."

When presented with that logic, Eddie couldn't turn it down, "Alright, bet then," We both shook hands, sealing the deal.

"Just don't let punch stain suit. Is rental," Mister Rasputin quipped. I turned and stared at him until it felt uncomfortable, "...Is not funny?"

"I thought it was funny," Eddie said in his support.

"Right," I said with a sigh, waving the whole affair off to walk out of the store. After all, my suit was already picked out, "You guys get Eddie a suit that won't get animal blood thrown on him by PETA. I'm gonna go... somewhere."

"Go check on the girls, would you?" Eddie called out as he went back to browsing the choices on the rack for something that suited him, "This is a delicate process. I've really gotta take my time and choose wisely, you know? Need to look GOODT for Saturday night!"

Something told me that if the store had something with sequins or lights, he would have picked that over anything sensible. But hey, I wasn't the one who would be wearing it. Eddie was a big boy, and could make his own decisions.

I sauntered off to the store where I remembered us splitting off from Hisako, Ruth, and Laura. To my surprise, I didn't find them still trying things on. They seemed to be done, ringing up their purchases at the front of the store. Upon noticing my presence, Ruth waved at me. Laura had known I'd been approaching the entire time. Being the subject of her stare as she watched me get closer left me wary.

It reminded me of a cat staring down a bird in a cage. I was the bird. The bird was me. I tried to ignore how that made me feel.

"How the hell are you guys already done?" I asked, walking up to the trio of girls. Ruth and Laura were already holding theirs, covered up to keep random crap from dirtying them up. The bags also had the secondary effect of keeping me from seeing what they had.

Hisako raised an eyebrow at me, "Are you done already?"

I tried to catch a look at what she'd gotten, but Hisako pulled my hat down while the cashier finished squaring the dress away, "Yes, but I don't care about any of this. Forgive me for stereotyping, but I thought you guys would take longer than 45 minutes."

"Because we're girls?" Hisako asked challengingly.

"Yes," I deadpanned shamelessly in return. I'd already said I was sorry in advance for the stereotype.

Hisako realized that my preemptive apology was the best she was going to get and sighed before explaining her position, "Neither of these two are any good for feedback on clothes, seeing as how Ruth can't really see, and Laura is Laura."

Both fair points, given who we were talking about. However, that also stood to inquire how Ruth picked her own dress without proper sight. That was a question for later, "You could have waited for me, or better yet, called me so I didn't have to listen to Eddie give play-by-play of his selection process. It took me fifteen minutes to get fitted."

"So now you're hoping to sneak a peek, you big perv?" Hisako said. Someone was certainly overestimating herself in certain regards.

"Oh, please," I said, "I'd rather not get banned from the mall just to get a look at your collective goodies. I'm pretty sure that would get me put on a few lists too," If I really wanted to see something naked while I was in public, I had a phone in my pocket with internet access.

It didn't take much longer before they were all ready to leave. From there, I planned to check back in on Eddie and Mister Rasputin. All I really wanted to do was get some food and go home. Laura had other plans, though.

She grabbed our attention before we could start back toward the suit store, "I have to show you all something before we leave," She said, walking off to presumably lead us to whatever she was talking about.

It wasn't as though she'd left us a lot of choice in the matter, so we followed along, "Uh..." She led us right to a mall service entrance, and other than sparing a glance to see if anyone was watching, cared nothing for heading right inside. Hisako, Ruth, and I scrambled in after her, decidedly less gracefully.

Things didn't get much more graceful than that. We almost fell over each other when we stopped and saw what Laura had wanted us to see.

Ten armed men and women strewn about the corridor, weapons and blood on the floor and walls. There were even a few dismembered limbs. A telltale sign that Laura had been at work at some point in the afternoon.

Hisako had to hold back a yell for multiple reasons, "When the hell did this happen!?" She hissed at Laura in a harsh whisper, "You were with us the whole time!"

Laura surveyed the scene of her making coolly, "Remember when I left for eight minutes and fifty-two seconds to head to the bathroom?"

Hisako blanched upon realizing what Laura was getting at, "Don't tell me you were dealing with these guys instead."

"Yes, and no," Laura said, "I spent three minutes and ten seconds fighting. The rest of the time was spent using the bathroom... and cleaning the blood off of my hands."

As gruesome as the sight before us was, let it never be said that Laura wasn't efficient. Sometimes terrifyingly so. Thankfully, Ruth couldn't see all of the blood and dismembered body parts. Hisako could, and seemed to be having trouble with it. She kept her distance and looked very close to throwing up.

I nudged a stray arm out of the way with my foot and tried not to stain my shoes by walking in blood. I just wanted to get close enough to see who was after us. A group of heavily armed humans lying in wait to pick us off sounded familiar.

This crew wore hockey masks and dressed in olive drab, tan, camouflage... basically the colors of any would-be urban commandos trying to make their fantasies a reality.

"These aren't the same guys from when we were in New York, are they?" I asked Laura who shook her head.

"They are not Purifiers," She confirmed for me, pointing to a hunting rifle one person had been armed with, "Their weapons and equipment are more crude. Many of them are armed more like they're hunting animals than going after mutants."

That in of itself was an insult. At least groups like the Purifiers and the Reavers were willing to put forth the capital to pay for a tactical advantage.

"Well, as gross as it is to be compared to animals, a bullet is a bullet," I said. And a well-placed bullet would splatter most of us all over the wall just as easily as anything else, "Did you at least keep one alive this time?"

Laura gave me an annoyed look, "You say that as though you didn't kill all of our enemies right alongside me the last time."

Her annoyance did nothing to deter me from making my point, "I wasn't judging or accusing, I was asking a question. We have mind-readers for interrogation, you know," I kicked the one that seemed the least harmed. A groan of pain told me all I needed to know, "Cool. This one's breathing. I'm calling Mister Rasputin."

Hisako put a hand on my arm as I went to grab my phone, "Don't you think Ruth should read this guy's mind before then?" She asked, still looking a tad green.

I spared a look at Ruth, and then at the armed contingent that lay bleeding on the floor, a scowl crossing my face, "I don't want her getting near these ogres until I'm sure they're totally unarmed and shackled," Ruth, apparently, didn't hear any of that, and walked forward, "Ruthie, what did I just say?"

She'd heard me just fine. She just had her own ideas on the matter, "No. They will be arrested after Bellamy calls Mister Rasputin, yes," Without fear, she stooped down by the living person that I had originally singled out, "Yes. They will be arrested, and we will never get to question them."

"The police will do it," Hisako tried to offer as a solution, only for all three of us to stare at her in disbelief, "...Okay, the police probably won't do it. S.H.I.E.L.D. then?"

I shook my head. S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't give a damn about us. I learned that much when I called in that favor with S.W.O.R.D.'s Abigail Brand for help in dealing with the Facility. The amount of arm-twisting that had to go into getting that done was absurd, even when we were serving up a major contributor to international troubles on a silver platter, just because in that particular case they were targeting mutants.

I didn't like it. But Ruth was allowed to make her own decisions. If I could endeavor to do dumb shit for the sake of furthering our aims, she could as well, and I had to trust in her, "If I see him even twitch for a gun, or to blow himself up, or whatever the fuck these guys do, I'm lasering some body parts off of him," I threatened/assured everyone within earshot.

Despite his uncomfortable wounds, the defeated terrorist didn't move. After Laura had taken the lot of them to the slaughterhouse, he thought better of trying the guy that she and the rest of them seemed to listen to.

Good. At least some of the fuckers could learn.

XxX

The next day, we did our squad practice as usual, only to receive a visit from Miss Frost in the middle of our drills. For once, she was all smiles upon seeing us, which was rare with anything that involved me.

"Well done, children!" She honestly seemed proud. It was kind of off-putting to see her so positive in my presence. I wasn't sure if I liked it, "You thwarted an attack that had the potential to take dozens of lives."

I was always down for heaping praise onto my Paladins, but this was not a team effort, and I needed it expressed as such, "No. We didn't do anything. Laura thwarted an attack. The rest of us were getting suits and dresses and crap."

Miss Frost's blue eyes drifted over to Laura, who seemed unwilling to meet her gaze, "Well, I guess all the praise should go to you then, dear. You could stand to make things a bit less corpsy for the next time, but I'm sure Logan will be happy to hear about this," She again addressed us all as a whole, "You also saved us quite a bit of time digging through the brain of a bigoted zealot."

Again, I felt the need to step in and give sole recognition, "-That was a Ruthie thing only. I actually told her not to."

Miss Frost huffed at me, "You really don't make it easy to give you credit for anything good, darling," All I could do was shrug. I loved taking credit for things, just as long as I actually did something to earn it.

Mister Rasputin spoke up at that point, having been fully briefed by both us and the X-Men proper, "Apparently, mall in town with mutant school nearby was better target than school itself," He said, "Especially week of dance."

This was news to us. The mall was targeted when it was because of the dance. Eddie waved his hands to prompt our advisor to stop, "Wait-wait-wait. Why do they know Homecoming is this week?" Ruth hadn't managed to nick that little detail out of our new friend's head before the X-Men arrived.

Miss Frost didn't seem to know, as that detail was likely too high up the totem pole for the lowly gunman Laura had taken down to know. At this point, all she could do was speculate, "There's a good chance someone in town is a sympathizer and feeds off details to groups like these… Sapien League individuals."

Another organization. Sapien League, Reavers, Purifiers. Whatever. By now, the names of these groups were bleeding together in my head. To me, they were all the same when it came down to it; just another crew of ultraviolent crazies who wanted to take a chunk out of us. What was a problem though, was that these Sapien League guys were new. So new, that when Hisako and I went to study up on them in an effort to be proactive, there wasn't really a lot in X-Men archives. There were a few pages worth of material starting from a few months ago. Not much to go off of.

"Is not all bad," Mister Rasputin assured us, "We were able to get the location of safehouses in area."

Eddie floated off of the ground and over to the headmistress, "Ooh, can we go when the X-Men head out to kick their asses?"

Miss Frost raised an eyebrow at Eddie's exuberance and gently swept him out of the way with her hand, "We try not to make it a habit of siccing students on mutant-killers, Wing. Besides, it's been handled already."

"Aww, man," Eddie planted himself back on the floor and walked back to the rest of us dejectedly, "I'm like the only person on the squad who hasn't proved they're ready for prime time X-Men action yet."

"Give it some time," Hisako quipped, "You seem to be hanging with the right crowd."

"You've been saying that since before summer break!" Eddie complained, "Fighting Sol's jackass son from the future doesn't count!"

For some reason, I felt offended, "Hey, don't call my son a jackass," Only I could call my child horrible things. And boy, did that ever sound awful once I thought about it in hindsight.

The luster from what happened at the mall had by now worn off, and Miss Frost remembered how much of a headache dealing with me and mine could give her, "Right. Well, again, good work," She rolled her eyes when I clicked my tongue and gave her a thumbs up, "Ugh."

Vexing that woman was one of the simple things that gave me life.

XxX

Despite dreading it... despite running from it... zero hour - or as it was more commonly called by people actually looking forward to the event - Homecoming arrived.

I was less than eager to spend hours cooped up in a redecorated school gym with the rest of the significant student body (many of whom I did not like), but I was coerced into attending by the rest of my team. I told myself I would even the score with them eventually, mutinous bastards that they were, Mister Rasputin included, seeing as how he was a chaperone.

The proverbial rain cloud over my head kept many people at bay for quite some time after I first arrived, which I was fine with. Unfortunately, it didn't take too terribly long for the first person to arrive who couldn't read my mood. Either that, or he didn't care.

Eventually, Julian strode up, looking as self-satisfied as ever, "Marcher! You look miserable as fuck," He commented with a grin, "Then again... you usually look pissed about something."

I couldn't say he was wrong there, "Hello, Julian," I said as neutrally as possible, before offering a smile to the girl he had with him on his arm, "Hey, Sofia. You look good."

Sofia smiled at me and nodded, "Thank you, Bellamy," She took it as the casual compliment that it was. Julian, on the other hand, decided to make a thing out of it.

"Whoa-whoa-whoa," The rich telekinetic put himself between the two of us, "This is my girl tonight, Marcher. You had your own, but you-," I had been gearing up for some kind of remark from him, but it never came, "Huh... never mind. I don't feel like finishing that one."

I was stunned. Even Sofia was surprised. Julian not taking the chance to finish a mean-spirited joke? And at my expense? What had the world come to? Either way, I left it alone. If he wasn't going to give me a reason to start any trouble, I wasn't going to pursue it.

"Are you by yourself?" Sofia asked, trying to get us past the previous moment.

I just shrugged, trying to look cool with my hands in my pockets, "Kinda short notice to try and find another date," I said, keeping an eye out for my ex, lest things get even worse, "...Kinda in bad taste too."

Julian seemed put off by my answer, "So, you're here, but you're not gonna try and dance with anyone?" He asked, "Dancing with a girl isn't the same thing as fucking one in front of Pixie, Marcher."

"Trying to enjoy yourself isn't spiteful," Sofia tried to counsel me, taking a more measured approach than her asshat boyfriend, "I know you want to take the breakup seriously. But do not forget to have fun," She gave me a pat on the arm before leaving with Julian, "We will see you later."

"Yeah, and quit scowling," Julian offered as a parting shot/word of advice, "I know it's, like, your default expression, but it's girl-repellent."

It was too early in the evening to flip someone off, so I kept my middle fingers holstered for the time being. I felt like there would be plenty of opportunities to be a shitheel as the evening progressed.

Looking around, I could see some of my teammates enjoying themselves. True to what we'd all expected, Hisako had a date. Some guy I didn't know, that she had never bothered bringing around the team. Good idea, keeping whoever it was away from us for the time being. There was no need to have the rest of the Paladins scare off someone she might have been interested in early.

Eddie was dancing with Cessily, and had thankfully foregone the leather suit, both for his sake and for Cessily's. The two of them had gotten together randomly, so I was glad it looked like something substantial was coming out of it.

...Humbug. I didn't need to be there for any of this. All of these good feelings. Blah. The crew could catch me up on any goings-on that I missed and absolutely needed to know about.

I had given up and was on my way out, when on my way to the door, I came across a gaggle of girls, including Megan, clad in a dress that matched her pink hair. She seemed taken aback that I was there.

"Hi, Bel," Megan said, sounding very uncomfortable, "...We need to talk."

I stared her in the eyes, having been waiting for this for quite some time, "By 'we', do you mean you and me? Or do you mean-?" I trailed off and gestured to her accompanying entourage. I knew this would happen. Any conversation we had amongst the peanut gallery would be worthless.

She looked back at her gathered friends, "No. Just me," She said pointedly, giving them enough of a glare to get them to back off. I was grateful for that, at least.

The time for this talk had been a week ago. After that point, it was too soon to try and smooth things out now. When I told other people that I wasn't angry, it was because I did my best to avoid the topic altogether. But anger wouldn't do me any good here. Control. That was what I needed.

We were still in the middle of the gym, and tons of kids had stopped what they were doing to watch. Some weren't even respectfully subtle about it, "You want to do this here?" I asked.

Megan looked around and quickly picked up on what I had, "No, I-. Follow me."

She took me outside, away from the other dance-goers. It took a moment for my ears to adjust to the lack of music and other noises. The quieter it got, the more nervous I got. It was something I had to swallow down and push through. This needed to happen. That didn't mean it was going to be fun.

Bravely enough, Megan was the first one to try and push through the awkwardness, "So, how have you been?"

Her attempt to break the ice was met with snark that had been festering for a week, "Oh, you know. Winning Field Day... thwarting terrorist attacks... being called out around school for cheating on you. Other than that last thing, great."

A shock of satisfaction rolled through me when I saw her wings droop. But then, I immediately felt like a jerk. Why? Why couldn't I just ever be mad about something without thinking about it?

Megan spoke quietly, eyes to the ground, "I never said that about you. It was the others. Not that it really matters as far as you're concerned," She took a deep breath, "It got out of control so fast. It was, like, one day I came out of my room and boom! It was out there, and I couldn't tell enough people how wrong they were."

I believed her. Despite the unpleasantness of the break-up, she had never lied to me. The only time she'd ever hurt me at all was the break-up itself. That gave her the benefit of the doubt from me.

"I don't care about what people I don't know think," I said to her. I gave the school at most a few weeks, and no one would even remember what the issue with me had been, "Pix, I need you to know that I never would have cheated on you, ever. Not with Laura. Not with anyone," The thought had never realistically crossed my mind, "I'm a piece of work, but I'm not that bad."

Megan sat down on a bench outside, looking down at her feet, "I wanted something simple. A cute boy who was all mine, who I could just be with," She wiggled her toes anxiously and looked up at me, "That's definitely not you. You're not simple."

I wanted to sit down next to her, but I felt that was too close for being a brand new ex, "...I could be."

Megan smiled at me sadly, "No, you can't," I felt my posture slump at that, something she noticed, "That's not a bad thing! It's not a bad thing that you're complicated."

I shuffled in place, uncomfortable, not because of my suit a d dress shoes, but because of the conversation, "I don't think I'm that complicated, Pix."

Megan scooted herself over on the bench and gestured to the space next to her. I didn't come any closer at first, but she wouldn't say anything else until I finally gave in and sat down, "You might think you're not, because you can explain who you think you are without thinking about it," She shook her head, "I can't. I feel like I'd have to write a term paper just to get through all of the nuts and bolts of what I think makes you tick."

"Sounds like a good idea for a psychology piece," I muttered. If someone actually cared enough to look at the telepathically altered construct that was now my mind, it would probably be quite the show.

"It's not just that," Megan continued, "You get shot off to space. You fight terrorists and supervillains. Your son from the future wants to kill you," She started sounding more exasperated, "The things you fall into... it's too much. It's too big. I know this is a school for X-Men, but all of that is over my head right now."

What a nice way to say that I was more trouble than I was worth. If I had been feeling more positive, I probably would have laughed. As it stood though, all I could do was soberly accept it, "I understand. I wish you'd have told me that when you dumped me. I could have stomached that."

Megan shrugged, not really apologizing about it, "It took me a few days to realize how uneasy all of that made me," Her expression turned hesitant, "...Do you hate me?"

I gave her a look that I hope reflected how dumb of a question that was, "Pix, if I hated you, you wouldn't have to ask. You would know. I'm petty as fuck when I'm mad," I definitely didn't hold civil summits with people I was upset with, "..I guess I really am a starter boyfriend. Could be worse, I guess."

Megan hadn't been privy to the conversation I'd had with Cessily and Hisako to get the reference. It felt like it had been a lifetime ago, when it had really only been a few weeks. Had all of this really fallen apart that fast? Oh well. As I still couldn't think of what I'd done to actually win Megan over, I would just have to live with not having her.

"Well, we had fun though, didn't we?" I said, letting her know in so many words that I knew it was over.

A smile lit up her face, all bright eyes and freckles, even though I could see the tears starting to well up, "Absolutely."

"Do you regret getting with me?"

"Not a chance."

That was all I could ask from her; that I wasn't a mistake. I would keep to my word and let her go. The last thing I ever wanted to be was 'that guy'. Megan gave me a kiss on the cheek and got up to go back inside. It was as close of a goodbye as we could have, given that neither of us were leaving the school and we would continue to see each other around. That would be awkward, but hey, we would deal with that when the time came.

You couldn't control and plan for everything. I wasn't any good at that sort of thing anyway. Anticipation wasn't my strong suit. I was more of an action/reaction kind of guy - cause a response, see what happens, and adjust to things as they come along.

Speaking of handling things as they came along, Laura revealed herself shortly after. She'd kept out of sight along the side of the gym while Megan and I had been talking. I wasn't really surprised she'd been listening; more so that she'd actually shown herself.

I didn't tell her to leave, nor did I tell her to come over. I let her make that decision on her own. Eventually, she decided to join me.

Whereas she usually walked so quietly she could leave a room from standing right next to me without my noticing, the heels on her feet clicked off of the pavement. And to say that it was odd to see Laura in a dress as vibrant a color as powder blue was a major departure from what I was used to.

"S'up," I greeted, leaning back on the bench, looking up at the moon.

Laura stopped a few feet away, hands clasped on front of herself, "I didn't mean to listen in, but..." She stopped explaining herself once I waved it off. I didn't care if anyone knew about what had happened, I just wanted an environment where Megan and I could have the conversation to begin with, "Are you okay with how this went?"

Not really.

"Does it matter?" I asked aloud, "Even if I was, what's done is done now."

Laura spared a glance back to the gym where Megan had returned to, "She's still attracted to you. You could probably get her back, you know," She seemed conflicted on advising me as such, "You could probably do it right now."

I fixed her with an odd look and studied her face. Why would she want me to do something like that? Eventually though, I fell back on my own reasons for doing what I did, "Maybe you're right. Maybe I could get her back for tonight. But I can't keep her. Not without changing who I am," I shook my head, "...I like who I am, Laura."

It was true. Sometimes, I was a little harsh on myself, but that was because my standards for myself were really goddamn high. In the grand scheme of things, I was more or less pleased. Maybe one day, somewhere down the line, I would look in the mirror and hate the guy staring back. Then I would work on changing. But not at that time.

"I like who you are too," Laura admitted, her gaze turning intense, "...Do you remember what I told you the last time we were alone together?"

About her and me? How could I forget? I thought about it almost every time I looked at her. It was intimidating, especially with the way she looked at me... and kind of exciting as well. I couldn't say that out loud though. I could only encapsulate my thoughts in three words, "Bring it on."

I must have amused her somehow, because she smirked at me, "Not tonight," She said, turning around to go back inside.

"Playing with your food is bad manners," I quipped. I could swear I heard her breath out a laugh through her nose.

XxX

The dance continued. Once I was inside, I was greeted by Ruth, who was eager to dance with me. I didn't have the heart to say no, not with her smiling so big. Apparently, I wasn't allowed to sulk.

Even as I glared down at her, she didn't budge, knowing that I was going to cave and give her whatever she wanted, "You owe me," I said, trying to save some face.

"Mm-hmm," Ruth nodded eagerly in agreement, though I'm pretty sure it was done to humor me. She put her hand in mine and I led her to the dance floor. Mostly because I didn't feel like having her drag me there.

How was I the leader of the squad? I was a sucker for all of the rest of my teammates and their whims. Oh well. Dancing with Ruth wasn't any trouble. She was energetic and... surprisingly good at it. Keeping up with her kind of helped to take my mind off of my kiboshed relationship.

And speaking of owing people...

"You owe me money, dick," I said, elbowing Eddie once Ruth and I drifted close enough to him and Cessily, who were chatting with other students.

"What?" Eddie hissed while Cessily tried not to laugh, "Dude, nothing happened to you!"

"Sorry for disappointing you, but that wasn't the bet," I said. In the meantime, Ruth had basically wrapped herself up in my arms, back pressed to me while she kept bopping to the music, "I told you how this was going to go. Five dollars, please."

Ruth put her hand out, palm up, waiting for money to be placed into it, "Pay Bellamy, yes." She said, never ceasing her movement.

I pointed to the middle of her hand for emphasis, "Pay me, yes."

Eddie looked around, finding no help from anyone else. Even Cessily seemed amused, "...I don't have five bucks on me right now," He said sheepishly.

Not a good enough response for Ruthie, "No. Get it, please."

"Yeah, get it," I said. By now I was bopping in time along with Ruth to the song playing, "I'm not gonna be nice enough to say 'pardon' or 'please'. Get my money, fool," We didn't welch on bets at Xavier's.

"Fine! I'll get it!" Eddie eventually exclaimed, throwing his hands up, "Way to profit off of your relationship going up in smoke, Sol."

I didn't want to hear that out of him. He was one of the ones who wanted me to perk up. Well, this was part of my coping mechanism – me taking shots at myself, "Think of it this way; the five dollars you give me will buy me some kind of crappy snack to make me feel better for being Pixie-less. Sans Pixie, as the French in France would say."

At that remark, Cessily frowned, walking over to put a hand on me, "I know what I said to you about it before, but I am sorry that you broke up. Pixie's a friend of mine too, and I did think you two were cute."

I spared a glance across the gym, where I could see Megan, spending her time at the dance with others the way I was. I could pick her out in a room in a heartbeat. Maybe one day soon my eye wouldn't be drawn to her so easily. Maybe soon enough it wouldn't hurt a bit when I did notice her.

Not tonight though.

XxX

After everything wrapped up, it was eerily quiet all across the school. Between midterms, Field Day, and Homecoming, everyone was exhausted. Salt of the earth man that I was, I felt was very considerate in how I crept through the dorms and across campus to get to my late night workout.

I was tired too, just not physically, which meant no sleep. It was getting harder and harder to drain myself of enough energy to go to sleep. Giving drugs to kids was probably frowned upon, but I had to talk to Dr. McCoy about letting up on that little taboo to give me something to let me rest.

I didn't want to be awake. Being awake in the dead of night with no one or nothing to occupy me meant that I had to think. There was nothing really important on my mind other than the pretty girl I'd let slip away.

'Stupid piece of shit,' The words rolled around in my mind as I leaned against a light pole, 'You could have kept her. You knew you could have, even without Laura telling you. And why didn't you? Pride? You could have sucked it up one time and done what you needed to do to win her back over. You could have compromised. You could have tried. Now what do you have?'

I grit my teeth and thought back angrily to get out of my head. But I was only raging at myself. No Quire. Not in my head. Not this time. That was all me; 100% the thoughts of Bellamy Marcher.

I had to take a few deep breaths and try to clear my head. If I was going to finally lose it, it wasn't going to be there and then. I was not going to allow my breaking point to be girl trouble. The first chance I got, I was going to have to... ugh... schedule a session with Dr. Garrison. And every fiber of my being wanted to punch myself in the face for suggesting that.

Before I could take out my (perhaps misplaced) frustrations on myself, I caught sight of a large shadow moving across the grass. Looking up at the moonlit night sky, I saw the unmistakable winged figure of Jay Guthrie.

...Okay? I thought I was the only person crazy enough to be awake at such an hour. And that was only because I had no choice. For a straight-laced, God-fearing kid like Jay to be doing anything of the sort was odd.

My curiosity was piqued, and my boredom had a target. But I couldn't do it alone. I needed backup.

XxX

In a matter of minutes, a sleepy Eddie and I found ourselves riding through the sky on Saberwolf's back, thanks to Eddie's mutant ability to channel his flight through others. He seemed less than enthused to be out on what during regular hours he would have considered an adventure. Unfortunately for Eddie, you usually didn't get to pick and choose when to get into some trouble. It usually happened whenever it felt like it.

Eddie's eyes were half open, as he was still waking up, even while guiding Saberwolf through the air with his powers, "Did you really have to wake me up for this?"

Yes, I did. Eddie could fly faster than Jay could, and could do it silently, "I need you to follow Jay," I said, "You said you wanted to do X-Men shit. This counts as X-Men shit."

Eddie grumbled, conceding the point, "Okay, but did you really have to wake Wolf up for this?"

"I was not sleeping," Wolf immediately defended, perhaps a bit too quickly.

Eddie was skeptical of our A.I. friend, "Sure. You were just in power save mode or something when we found you up in that tree."

Before things could descend into squabbling, I interjected, "I need Wolf because he can track mutants. You fly faster than Jay, so we can catch up, but he has a fifteen minute head start," I said, only for Eddie to turn around, giving me a dry look, "I'm not blaming you. We all can't be blessed with the inability to sleep."

"Blessed?" Eddie said skeptically.

"Did I say blessed? I meant cursed," I corrected, "Sorry, it's the insomnia."

"When was the last time you actually slept?" Eddie asked. I couldn't recall, giving him a shrug in return, "...Dude, we've really got to figure something out about that. That can't be good for you."

"Can we figure out what we're going to do about this first?" I offered as an alternative. Dwelling on my lack of sleep and all of the negative things that came with it would do us no good here.

Eddie let it drop, letting out a yawn as he kept us airborne, "What are you even expecting to find?"

"I don't know," I replied before trying to properly defend my decision, "The guy snuck off of campus at 3 in the morning. Nothing good ever happens after 3 a.m."

Having been presented with a universal truth, Eddie slowly started coming onboard, "It's worth a look, I guess. And hey, if I stay out 'til dawn for nothing, at least it's Sunday. I can just sleep in all day when we get back."

"That's the spirit, Wingman!" A 'too sweet' later, and we were coming up with a plan for approach, "So, how are we going to play this when we find him?"

"I dunno," Eddie said, "How about we just run up on him and be like, 'Hey, Jay! Fancy seeing you here. This is where you get your weed too huh? Small world.'"

I scoffed, "No one sneaks out to buy weed at 3 a.m." A good way to get cursed out by your dealer was to try and set up a purchase for whatever pissant amount a high school student could afford at an ungodly hour such as this.

Eddie's brain started cranking, which was bad news for what was left of my sanity, "You're right. Think he's on pills or something? Ooh, is Kick still a thing?" He was way too excited about that possibility.

"Eddie, he's not on drugs!" I said, rebuking him, "Laura said he smelled like death, not shit-tier weed and Oxycontin."

One part of what I said stuck with Eddie in particular, "Laura said what? Death? Why are you just now sharing this information?"

A good question. The last few days had been a whirlwind, "Because stuff with Laura has been weird lately, so I didn't think about it."

"Still? Thought you guys were past that awkward stuff."

"We are, but things are getting weirder."

"Well, that's-," Eddie stopped himself mid-sentence and reached back to elbow me, "Wait, stop distracting me. Backtrack to that 'smells like death' crap."

I never got the chance, as Saberwolf picked that moment to speak up, "Stop. We are here."

Eddie brought us to a stop in the sky. We both looked down on the town we had "Where is 'here? We've been flying for thirty minutes."

"Westchester, New York," Wolf said. His sight panel lit up as he scanned the area, "Joshua Guthrie is .362 miles southeast this location. The only building with active electricity is a church."

Eddie seemed befuddled as he lowered us to the ground a block or two away. I could relate, "He flew twenty miles just to worship before the sun came up?" He asked as we touched down, "What church is letting him in at 3? Early morning Mass doesn't even start until 5."

I hopped off of Wolf's back, keeping an eye out just in case, "Pretty sure Jay's not Catholic, but these are all questions we can ask once we go and see what's up," I gave Saberwolf a pat on the back, "Hang back, Wolf. Don't want you to freak out the deacon."

There probably wasn't much that could freak out a congregation if a kid with wings was welcome, but I didn't want to take any chances. Bringing a big metal wolf with more blades on him than a butcher shop into a church more than likely wouldn't sit easy with most.

Saberwolf took the request in stride, "Understood. I will scout the area," He said before jumping off of the street to the nearest roof.

I winced at the sound of him leaping. He'd scraped a chunk out of the road with his paws, "Wolf, low profile!" I hissed loudly, "I swear, I think he likes scaring people."

Eddie and I hustled on foot, managing to catch up to Jay as he was heading up the front stairs of a church that looked very well-funded. He heard us coming and turned around, "What are you guys doing here?" He asked in surprise.

"That's what we should be asking you," I said, jogging up a few steps to stand level with him, "What are you doing flying off by yourself at this hour?"

Eddie nodded in agreement, "Yeah, that's a Sol move. Do you want Frost to hate you the way she hates him? Because that's how you get that."

I rolled my eyes, but noticed Jay tucking something into the pocket of his jacket, trying to do so out of our sight, "What is that?"

Jay hesitated, realizing he'd been caught trying to conceal whatever he had, "It's... a cure."

"A cure for what?" I asked, receiving no answer. Jay couldn't make eye contact with me, "Jay. A cure for what?" Instead of saying anything, he pulled out a vial. All of a sudden, things from months before came spilling back, "That's not the Hope Serum is it?" Didn't the X-Men get rid of all of that garbage months ago? "Icarus, you know where that stuff came from, right? Why it exists?"

Eddie was blunt and resentful, "-An alien stole our teacher's corpse and took the old Legacy Virus out of his body to wipe out mutants," He said in a hard tone.

"Does it matter where it came from if it works?" Jay asked, seemingly unable to read the mood.

Eddie glared at Jay, "Yeah, seeing as how that same alien cut Sol's guts out and got Miss Pryde shot off into space."

I jumped in, trying to set some direction in the conversation. If we kept pushing, it was just going to start a fight. We wouldn't get anywhere that way, "Where did you even get this? The X-Men destroyed the place where this was made."

"Reverend Stryker says God provides for those truly in need."

I looked over at Eddie. His slowly mounting anger quickly turned to alarm. The feeling was mutual on my part. He'd heard the same thing I had, "Don't tell me the person who's been helping you out is-."

Knowing where I was going with that, Jay preempted me, "He's not what you think. If you just talked to him, you'd understand."

No. That wasn't going to happen. Not by choice, "Well, fortunately, he's nowhere near here, so I don't have to ever deal with that."

As if summoned by the spirit of misfortune, a voice that I'd until that point only heard in hellfire sermons on the TV filled my ears, "I wouldn't speak in absolutes in such a way, Bellamy."

There he was, looking just the way he had on the screen. Short, gray hair, conservatively styled, clad in his Sunday best, with a large golden cross hanging from around his neck. Reverend Stryker approached, looking right at Eddie and me. The smirk on his face made my skin crawl.

He walked right past us without stopping, unlocking the front doors of the church, "Welcome back, Joshua," He said, gesturing for Jay to enter, "Come on in."

Jay smiled at Stryker and headed inside, leaving Eddie and I out on the stairs. What could we do? Clearly, he wanted to be there. At that point, I was fine with clubbing him over the head and dragging him off caveman-style.

Stryker spared us one last look before disappearing inside as well, closing the door behind him. Eddie waited for about five seconds. When the street didn't erupt in gunfire around us, he quickly turned to head back down the stairs, "Stryker has a church in Westchester? Okay, we're done here. Waaaaay too in over my head now."

"Eddie, no," I stopped him before he could get out of reach, "We can't just leave Jay here by himself."

"Yes, we can," Eddie said, nodding slowly, "We totally can. Trust me, I'm the team expert on X-Men escapades. Stryker has a serious body count. What do we do?"

In this case? I only had one answer, "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst," I said vaguely.

Eddie's posture slumped, "Man, why didn't you just blast him?"

There was a time and a place for hero shit, and this wasn't it.

"Do you really think Jay would have let me just blast him?" I asked. If I'd have shot Stryker then and there, it would have just made things worse, "Look, if anything goes down, a quick text to Wolf, and he'll come in chainsaws and knives blazing," That seemed to put Eddie more at ease, but not by much, "Let's just stick with Jay, and make sure Stryker isn't trying anything on him."

Eddie fidgeted in place, not that I could blame him. He'd just come face-to-face with a cold-blooded killer, "We should call this in. Colossus isn't going to like getting a call at 3:30 in the morning."

"I'm sure he'd like it less if we didn't say anything and got murdered," He'd chew us out, perhaps. But not too harshly since we were still doing the right thing, "We've got to get someone over here. You were right about this being out of our league."

Eddie waited impatiently for the signal to finally give way to someone speaking, "Da? Is Piotr," Mister Rasputin said tiredly.

Eddie relayed the message as quickly as he could, "Reverend Stryker's got Jay. We're in Westchester. Use the tracker, to find exactly where. Get here fast, please. Gotta go," It sounded like Mister Rasputin had broken his bed jumping out of it before the phone went silent, "Now what? Can we go home?"

"Not as long as Jay stays. We've gotta wait it out," I said. Eddie let out a groan, "This counts as X-Men stuff, Wing," I tried to boost his morale with bravado. We did have a responsibility to make sure one of our own didn't get himself hurt.

Eddie let out a sigh and put his phone away, "Draft an S.O.S. for Wolf and have it on standby," He said, sounding resigned to his fate, "Dude, we're gonna die."

"Over my-," I stopped myself before another word could leave my mouth.

Unfortunately, Eddie had caught on to what I'd been going for. Despite the situation, he couldn't help but grin, if only for a second, "You were about to say, 'Over my dead body,' weren't you?" I didn't answer. He shook his head and gestured forward, "After you. You're a better bullet sponge than I am."

I took the lead going in. Half because I was the leader, and half because Eddie was right. I wasn't nearly as tough as an armored up Hisako, but if someone was to get shot, between the two of us I had a better chance of walking away from it.

Inside, we weren't met with dozens of rifles pointed our way. It was just Jay sitting with Stryker near the front of the worship area, chatting it up like Stryker was his advisor.

One thing was for sure though. If we made it out of this, the first thing I was doing was heading to Frost or Summers and dropping a dime on Jay. This was the kind of crap you didn't keep to yourself.

Eddie and I sat. He busied himself with drafting an email that he CC'ed to every teacher he could remember enough of their address for autocorrect to help him reach. Just in case there was someone important that Mister Rasputin couldn't rouse on his own into riding to the rescue.

All we could do for the time being was hunker down and lessen our chances of dying before anyone could get us out. With that in mind, I got up and started moving to Jay's pew. The same one Stryker was also in.

Eddie freaked out under his breath, "No-no-no, we're fine back here. Sol, what are you doing?"

I pointed to our classmate and our probable enemy, "If we're right next to the guy, his goons probably won't shoot at us or blow us up."

While Eddie didn't like my logic, he lacked better ideas, "Aw, man... you're telling me the safest place to be right now is right next to Stryker?"

I was just as thrilled about it as he was, but again, no better ideas. We moved to the pew behind Jay and Stryker. He seemed irked by our presence. Whether it was because we were cutting in on whatever he was saying to Jay, or just because it meant he had to deal with three pieces of mutant filth instead of just one, I didn't know.

"Good of you to join us, Bellamy," Stryker said, "You and Edward both."

...What?

Eddie and I went wide-eyed, "...Dude..." Eddie tried and failed to whisper, "Why does he know our names?"

"Young Joshua here has shared much about the things that concern him," Stryker said, "I first tried to lend an ear to him some time ago, and as I hear, I have you to thank for him deciding to accept my offer."

Oh. That whole piece of advice I'd given Jay to try and get him to talk to someone about his issues, "Yeah... this is my fault. Totally my fault. Of course it is," The sarcasm in my voice was blatant and disrespectful.

"Just listen to him, guys," Jay insisted, wanting us to give Stryker a chance.

Stryker nodded gratefully before speaking to Eddie and I, "Is it so wrong that there are people like Jay who may not wish to endure the existence of being a mutant? Is it so wrong that a choice exists, for him to even be a mutant?"

Eddie sneered at the man's intent, "You say that like being a mutant is wrong."

Reverend Stryker chuckled as though speaking to ignorant children, "If God intended for there to be mutants, would he have made your lives so hard? Would have have pitted you against a whole race?"

While Eddie seethed, I patiently waited Stryker out before eventually pointing to the skin on my arm, "This ain't the tree to be barking up with me," He could have replaced the word 'mutant' with 'black' and asked me all of those questions again. It would have sounded close to the same.

"I'm not the only person who feels the way I do!" Jay said, coming to Stryker's defense, "If being a mutant can be a choice it should be. The X-Men didn't have the right to take that choice away. Thanks to Reverend Stryker, they have that choice. We all do."

Eddie rolled his eyes, fed up at this point, "Who else? Who else could possibly not want their powers?"

Jay immediately shot back with an answer, "Kevin Ford on the Hellions, first of all."

Eddie paused at that, "...Okay, I'll give it to you on Wither. But that's just one."

"I know five more," Jay said firmly, pulling out the vial he'd stashed there earlier, "But Kevin wanted his powers gone more than anyone. When I told him I could get him a cure, he was so happy," He smiled and looked over at Stryker, "The look on his face when I gave him this, Reverend, you should have seen it. How could that be wrong?"

"And he took it?" Stryker asked, taking the tiny container.

Jay nodded, "We talked about it last night. When I gave it to him, he took it as soon as he could. He said he'd finally be able to dance with Laurie," He shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know if he got the chance, but next time he definitely will."

Eddie leaned back in the pew, his arms crossed, "If he took that cure, I don't think so," He said, to the confusion of Jay, "School for mutants, Icarus. The feds don't let humans go to Xavier's. If Wither isn't a mutant anymore, I don't think he'll be around for the winter dance."

I was looking much deeper than that, however, "Forget that. You straight-up screwed Kevin over. He doesn't have parents, Jay. He's a ward of the school. If he can't stay there, where's he gonna go?"

It was clear from Jay's stunned demeanor that he in fact hadn't thought about that. We did because we interacted with a lot of our friends, even our contemporaries on other squads like Kevin's Hellions. Jay was an introvert even when it came to his teammates on the New Mutants.

The scope of the situation sank in for Jay when Stryker chuckled. Without us noticing, he'd gotten up and moved closer to the pulpit, "Don't worry about your friend, Joshua. You did the right thing. It won't be a problem for him much longer."

With him getting up and away from us, I was on my guard, "What are you on about?"

"Do you boys know how the Hope Serum was created?"

Eddie had already gone over this outside with Jay, "An alien named Ord got some science lady to make it. Then a few months ago, the X-Men blew the production facility straight to hell. The end," He snapped.

"Do you know where it came from?" Stryker asked, "The antidote to the greatest pox God brought upon mutantkind - the Legacy Virus," He shook his head with a click of his tongue, "You X-Men do a poor job cleaning up after yourselves. The work of Dr. Kavita Rao, the woman behind the Hope Serum, started out by working with the Legacy Virus itself."

Just like that, I felt sick to my stomach. The Legacy Virus. The thing that had wiped out countless mutants only a handful of years ago. It turned mutants' own powers against them inside of their bodies. Eventually, it even mutated to the point where it affected people who weren't mutants.

Eddie went pale. Jay still didn't know what was going on, or at least he was in denial, "I-I don't understand what you're saying, Reverend."

Eddie leapt forward and angrily snatched Jay up by the collar of his shirt, "I do! You didn't give Kevin the Hope Serum, you gave him the mutant Black Plague!"

Jay's lip quivered. His gaze darted between Eddie and myself, "There's a cure though! The X-Men made it, didn't they?"

"This is a new strain," Stryker said, seemingly taking great pleasure in bringing more despair as he leaned over the podium, "And you only came back with one vial, Joshua. You gave it to more than just one mutant, didn't you?" He didn't answer, even when Eddie gave him a forceful shake. Not good, "The only real cure for being a mutant is to wash oneself in eternal hellfire. Fortunately, the new Legacy Virus will provide a headstart for those you've helped."

The doors flew open, with uniformed, armed Purifiers filtering in. By this point, I didn't bother waiting for gun barrels to be pointed at us. I shot first. Explosive blasts. No messing around here.

"Kill them!"

Stryker's shout was drowned out by my blasts and the return fire from the Purifiers. Eddie dragged Jay down behind the paltry cover of the pews. Stryker took the chance to slip away up a flight of stairs out of the line of fire.

"We have to get out of here, Sol!" Eddie shouted right next to my ear.

I felt offended by the suggestion, "I'm not running from Reverend fucking Stryker!" After all of this, we had the guy right by us. We couldn't do much about what he'd already put into motion, but we could go after him and make him pay for it.

"Okay, how about running from Reverend fucking Stryker and his legion of goons!?" Eddie yelled back. The man had a point.

I dropped down behind cover and sent the message I'd drafted for Saberwolf. A big chunk of seating near my head was splintered by a bullet. Eddie wasn't used to being shot at for real, but he was better adjusted to it than Jay, who looked ready to bolt into a hail of gunfire.

We needed some space.

I nudged Eddie and pointed straight up, gesturing to my own glowing hand. He nodded and waited for me to do my thing, which was to fire directly up, blowing a hole into the ceiling that he then quickly flew through. Jay was belly-down on the floor, so I kicked him, "Jay, go upstairs with Eddie! Through the hole!"

Jay snapped out of his mindset long enough to do as I asked. He flew slower than Eddie with his wings, and made for a much easier target, so I covered him in the meantime. That left me alone facing six gunmen. Not odds that I liked, but I didn't plan on staying for much longer. The ceiling was twenty feet up. I could have made that jump if there weren't a few guys with guns trained on the hole. The second I went for the jump, they would tear me to shreds.

They were beaten to the punch, however. Wolf sliced through the wall with his chainsaw, drawing all of the attention onto himself just long enough for me to pick off two guys. With their attention split, the remaining three were no match for Wolf's many bladed instruments. He tore hunks off of them in short order. It was quite bloody, but after being up close and personal to Laura's work on several occasions, I'd developed a bit of a tolerance to seeing people get filleted.

Wolf trotted over, tail waving in the air. I was very happy to see him, but still couldn't help but bust his balls, "Did you have to make it such a spectacle, drama queen?"

Smartass that he was, he responded in kind, "My apologies. Next time, I will leave you to fend for yourself," He would never. He knew he loved me, "Edward Tancredi and Joshua Guthrie are directly above us."

"Right. Let's go," Wolf took the lead, bounding up the cramped stairway nearby. A Purifier leaned out of the doorway at the top of the stairs and shot down at Wolf and I. Wolf's big metal frame absorbed the lion's share of the bullets, and I shot the man down before he could do any real damage, "Where's Stryker, Wolf?"

"I cannot detect humans," Wolf said as we entered another room where Purifiers were posted up waiting. The first sign of us they got resulted in their opening fire, "My sensors can only locate organisms with the X-gene."

"That explains why you don't tell me when there are guys with guns around the corner!" I snapped at him. I put down covering fire while Wolf leapt into action. Squishy humans weren't much of a match for him. Even for the ones with automatic weapons, their reflexes were too slow.

We came across a pair of Purifiers trying to force their way into a locked room. I lifted my index fingers and lasered them through the head. They never saw it coming. Wolf broke out his chainsaw and sliced through to the other side where Eddie and Jay were taking refuge. It looked like some kind of computer room, with several monitors and consoles connected to... something that wasn't there anymore. Did they clear something out before the fight started?

Eddie had a gun in his hand trained on the door, but put it aside when he saw Wolf and I, "Thank Christ. We've got to get ourselves out of here," He informed us.

That didn't make any sense to me, "What? You called Mister Rasputin before we even walked into this place. He should be here any minute."

Eddie shook his head, "Something's wrong. Something's really wrong," He held up his phone, "He told me we needed to hold out, that something was up back at the school," There was fear in his eyes, "Sol, no one's coming! We're on our own!"

"Okay. We do it ourselves then," The only choice we had if the cavalry wasn't coming. I pointed the way Wolf and I had just come from, "Go get a real gun from one of the guys outside."

Eddie started that way when he stopped and looked at the bodies crumpled on the floor, "Are they dead?"

That was right. Eddie had never seen me kill anyone before, "Better them than you two," I explained succinctly. Eddie squared the thought away for the time being and got a weapon with more kick to it.

Jay, meanwhile, was still shell-shocked by what had transpired, "This is all my fault. It's all my fault," He kept saying to himself.

I grabbed him and tried to nudge him Eddie's way, "Jay, go get a gun," No response. He didn't even look at me, "Damn it, he's fried. Wolf, stay close to him," I asked.

"Uh, Sol?" Eddie called out to me from the window. I moved over, keeping myself out of sight as much as possible while taking a look.

Reinforcements had arrived. And those reinforcements were reinforced. Three large, bulky powered exoskeletons, painted in camouflage.

Eddie started pacing the floor in exasperation, "Dudes in fucking Fallout-ass power armor!" He exclaimed, waving his gun around. I had to duck out of the way of it a few times, "We've got bootleg Iron Men stomping all over, dude!"

"Fuck this," I blew a gigantic hole through the roof. When in doubt, keep going up until they couldn't reach you, "Get on Wolf, we're getting out of here."

Saberwolf forced himself underneath Jay, while Eddie assumed the position on his back, "I don't know what those things are armed with."

Machine guns... probably missiles... maybe something bladed. As long as they didn't fly, I felt we'd be okay, "Get high up as fast as you can," I directed, "Hopefully they don't have anything that can reach past a certain point."

"Aye-aye," Eddie said, hovering Wolf off of the ground as he prepared to take all of us off, "Man... I made a real monkey's paw wish, didn't I?"

After wanting to be an X-Man for so long, the reality of how scary it could be was setting in. That was how it always went, and yet, I couldn't let it happen that way for Eddie. He'd always supported me, so I would return the favor.

I slapped him on the back hard to get him pumped up, "We've got this, Wingman."

Eddie took a deep breath, and then we went up. Straight up. Fast. I didn't even hear anyone open fire on us. It was so fast, I almost lost consciousness - like an elevator ride from hell. We stopped high in the air, to the point where the buildings of Westchester were dots. Then, without missing a beat, we took off for Xavier's.

Whatever was waiting for us there, we just had to be ready for it.

...For fuck's sake. Six hours ago, I was at Homecoming.

And now you're fighting for your motherf***ng life. Funny how that works out sometimes, huh? And by funny, I mean horrifying.

That's the chapter. It shouldn't be too much longer before the next one is out. In all honesty, I had to split this one, because I made it way too long without even thinking about it until I was almost 20,000 words in.

So, yeah. Look forward to that.

Kenchi out.