Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or X-Men. By my very nature, this makes me want it that much more. That's just the kind of man I am. Take that how you will.

Chapter 35: Team Dynamics

Being leader of the to-be student squad of X-Men meant more responsibility. Part of that responsibility involved lots of research; lots of study. If I weren't an insomniac, and thus had the full 24 hours of any given day available to me, I probably would have complained about all of the extra work. As it stood, I just had to find a window of time where I was bored enough to power through and get it done.

My window came on a day where Eddie and I were lazing around in my dorm room. My part of the building hadn't taken much damage in the Purifiers/Sapien League attack like the common area had, so the Paladins dropped by more to hang out than they had to before.

Eddie sat around, being a bum and freeloading with my assortment of gaming consoles, while I sat on my bed, surrounded by student files. It was honestly distressing to be surrounded by that much paperwork, but I could handle it.

"There," I finally said, having read through each and every sheet detailing all of my future underlings, "No one can say I'm not trying to prepare for this. Now the next step is to talk to everyone and lay down the law."

I assumed that doing so wouldn't require much, if any, strong-arming. To get people onboard, they would have had to have been told what was happening. If anyone accepted from that point forward with hopes of usurping my spot, they were in for a rude awakening. I was more of less told that one of the reasons I was chosen was specifically because I had little problems with busting someone's ass to keep them in line if need be. Not that I was eager to. I liked just about everyone chosen for the squad.

Eddie set his controller aside and looked at the names in the corner of each file, "So... me, Armor, Match, Pixie, Wolf Cub, Elixir, Prodigy, Surge, Wallflower, Wind Dancer, Dust, Hellion, Mercury, Rockslide, the Cuckoos..." He sat, counting off people on his fingers until he got to the end, "You've got a pool of 15 possible teammates so far, dude... and yes, I'm counting all three Cuckoos as one teammate."

I nodded, understanding where he was coming from "-And no control over who I get on any given day."

Eddie shook his head and scowled, not pleased at one of the decisions he saw, "I don't see how Wallflower made the cut, but Blindfold didn't."

Really? Because I definitely could, "That's just the Paladin bias in you. I love Ruthie to pieces, but altogether, the Cuckoos are absolutely the better telepaths right now. Also, they turn into diamond. What's not to like about that?"

Moreover, I'd never asked, but I was pretty sure Ruth had no desire to suit-up as an X-Man, at least right then.

Eddie let out a non-committal hum before he picked up Megan's file and waved it around, "Can you even work with Pixie?" I glared at him, "I'm just saying. I would have asked that before you guys broke up too, but now that you're not banging anymore, won't it be weird to give her orders?"

I snatched the file out of his hand and put it back amongst the others, "Seeing as how none of those orders will involve 'banging me', as you so delicately put it, I don't think it'll be an issue," At that point, an idea thread was pulled, unraveling a whole blanket of thoughts, "Oh, God, you just put this in my head. There's too much relationship shit in this lineup."

Relationship shit made all teams suffer. It caused in-fighting and resentment. It could annoy others. No matter what happened, it was all going to fall on my head. And we had no shortage of romantic entanglements. Prodigy and Surge, Hellion and Wind Dancer, Wing and Mercury, Elixir and Wallflower, me and Pixie, me and Laura-.

...Wait a minute.

I quickly rifled through the stack of personnel folders that contained the briefings of all potential student team members. No Laura Kinney in sight, "Why the hell isn't Laura in this lineup? I need her on this team more than all of you poor saps put together."

Eddie quickly came to the same realization that I had, "Huh... she isn't. Think it's because she still doesn't have a codename yet?"

I hoped it wasn't for a reason that stupid. We kept meaning to give her one, but she either always gave us the slip during the naming process, or we all just got bored and moved onto something else before finishing the task at hand.

All I knew was that I was going to get on someone's ass about this, just as soon as I found out who to go to. It would obviously be one of four people - Mister Rasputin, Dr. Garrison, Mister Summers, or Miss Frost. I could find the time to bitch at each of them until I got my answers. Why? Because Laura was worth it. I would always feel much better going into battle with a claw-knuckled berserker babe on my team. Who didn't want that watching their back?

Speaking of claws, or someone with claws, Saberwolf opened the door and walked in. Not something that was worth paying attention to by itself. The sound that accompanied him, however, was.

"What is that whirring noise?" I asked.

Eddie shrugged, "I dunno? The Playstation's still on," Both he and I had noticed the sound, but it wasn't a constant thing. It only happened every so often, for example, whenever Wolf moved.

"No way. My baby runs quiet," I said in defense of my primary console. I did not defend my living A.I. friend, "Wolf, is that you?"

Wolf froze in place and let the question sink in for a few seconds before replying, "No."

He did nothing to convince me. I walked over and leaned in close. Because he didn't like having his personal space intruded upon, he leaned away and used his tail to shove me back. That was enough to bring up the noise again, "That is you! Is something broken in you again?"

Seeing as how he'd been front-and-center in the gigantic battle against the anti-mutant loonies, it stood to reason that someone got lucky with a good shot that did him harm. Either that, or accumulation of smaller bits of damage finally started getting to him. I remembered watching him take a few bullets.

With my accusation, Wolf turned away, not even bothering to dispute it, "I am not going to Forge again," He said resolutely.

I couldn't understand his reasoning, "Why the hell not? He fixed you last time. He upgraded you last time," He made him look downright badass and had streamlined some of his features.

"-Without being asked," Wolf added, detailing his problem with Forge's adjustments, "You do not understand how violating it is to have changes made to your body without consent."

Eddie winced sympathy with our mechanized comrade, "To be fair, Sol, I could imagine it's a lot like going in for surgery and having the doctor add two extra arms or something."

When he put it that way, it did sound awful. But still, Wolf needed to get checked out, and Forge was the only person I was aware of who would actually spare the time to service him and had the ability to do so, "Well, this time I'll go to make sure he doesn't mess with anything else," He still seemed apprehensive, "Wolf, if I have to go to the medical bay every time I get fucked up-."

"-Which is a lot compared to the rest of us," Eddie chimed in without being asked.

I barreled through the interruption to make my point, "-You've got to go and get yourself looked at. You're my friend, and I want you to be as healthy as possible."

Using the magical f-word that wasn't profanity seemed to be just the ticket to get Saberwolf onboard, though not without a concession, "Promise me that you will not let me out of your sight."

That was easy enough to agree to, "I promise," I remembered wanting to go with him last time.

The accord was sealed with flesh-and-blood hand shaking cold, metal paw.

XxX

I went up my chain of authority, first going to Mister Rasputin – no luck there. He'd recommended Laura to the higher-ups along with the rest of the Paladins. Next, I went to Mister Summers, confusing him, because he told me he'd definitely put Laura in the running for being on my team. He even handed me the original stack of folders he'd made copies of to give to me. Laura's was definitely in there when it wasn't in mine.

That left me one more place to go to air my grievances.

I walked up to my least favorite office, despite it being the one that I wound up in most often. Before I could even knock on the door, I heard Miss Frost call out to me from inside, "Come in."

A scowl was on my face from the moment I opened the door. Not a great way to start the upcoming conversation, 'Know-it-all telepaths.'

"I heard that," Miss Frost said with a smirk.

"I thought it out loud," I said plopping down in a chair in front of her desk while she set her work aside, "Can we talk really quick?"

"Of course, Mister Marcher," She said, giving me her full, undivided attention, "What can I do for you?"

Instead of just being a belligerent ass the way I'd been in the past, I decided to try and be more diplomatic, seeing as how I didn't have control of everything on my team, "I got a look at the roster you guys plan to have rotating in and out. The only problem I have is that I need Laura in the pool of active students, like, yesterday."

Miss Frost sighed and gave me a tired look, "Are the rest of the team really so bad that you absolutely need to have her along?"

"No, but Laura is my ringer," I admitted, "She's worth her weight in gold in the field. If I had the choice, I'd lobby to have her on every mission I took," Which was probably why I wouldn't have a hand in picking the mission line-ups.

Still, it was true. I'd take Laura first or second for any and all scenarios. Active combat, disaster cleanup, search and rescue. I didn't care. She could benefit whatever team she was on, whether there was a fight or not. I knew that. I knew that Miss Frost knew that. I shouldn't have had to bring it up.

It was as if I could see her mind turning as she tried to work through a way to explain things to me, "Mister Marcher, I know you have something of a Paladin bias, but please understand that this decision is not without merit."

Oh no. That vague bullshit wasn't going to work on me, "I'd love to hear the merit. Laura crushes everything we have her do," Not a chance I was going to just take anyone's word for anything anymore, "She's better than me. She just isn't very... leader-y."

"The word is authoritative, darling," Miss Frost corrected with a roll of her eyes, "And exactly. This is meant to get all of the inexperienced children more prepared. X-23 doesn't have anything to learn from being on this team."

"So, she's too good?" I said in mild disbelief, "Okay, that just means more insulation for all the other kids when we're out there," Laura could serve as a great security blanket for others when we were in over our heads. I couldn't always guarantee that I wouldn't lose my cool, "...Why don't you want her on the team? I talked to Mister Summers before I came here. He said he'd put her file in with the others for me. That means you took it out."

What Miss Frost had to say, she clearly didn't want to say it to me. Maybe fearing it would fall on deaf ears, perhaps? "She's dangerous. And don't you say 'we're all dangerous'. You know what I mean."

If that was her angle, she was right to keep it to herself, "Do I really?"

Miss Frost had no patience for my attempts to be cute, "You're very loyal. But Miss Aldine has given you a glimpse at X-23's life. Tell me, how much bloodshed did you see?"

A lot, admittedly. Like, an upsetting amount of bloodshed. But I was pretty sure I ranked second for most people put into the ground out of students at the school. I told her as much.

"Do you know how many people I killed during Stryker's little attack? At least four," Two guys I lasered through the brain, one guy I cut to the bone and bled out, and Stryker, I blew a cut of flank steak out of. Those were just the ones I knew about. There could have/should have been more, "You have me leading this little crew."

Miss Frost shook her head, "You don't have the baggage of an entire organization after your head. You don't have an olfactory trigger that will send you into an uncontrollable murderous rage," She offered as... fairly decent reasons to think Laura was a threat, "Don't misunderstand me. I'll never shed a tear for anyone who threatens the lives of my students. I know you're leveraging for the concept of a double standard, but you and X-23 are not the same."

We weren't, but that didn't mean she was any worse than me, or that I was any better than her, "Nothing like that will happen," I said as seriously as I could, "Just give her a chance. If anything goes wrong, I'll take responsibility."

Icy blue eyes tried to stare into my soul, "Even if it leads to the death of one of your teammates?"

Miss Frost's attempt to play on my sense of liability missed wide, "What's the difference between someone dying because I let Laura on the team, and someone dying because I led them to it? Either way, it's on me," She seemed surprised to hear that from me, "I think having her on the team would help save people."

Miss Frost stood up from her desk and turned away from me to look out the window, "She's a weapon, Mister Marcher, whether she means to be or not."

And suddenly, it hit me. That was why she hadn't referred to Laura by name once in all of the times they'd interacted around me. If I was annoyed before, I was livid after realizing that, and I couldn't keep it under wraps.

My foot lashed out and kicked the bottom of her desk. Miss Frost jumped a little bit, but didn't turn back around, "Then why the fuck did you let her come here!? This place is supposed to help us be better, so let her try!"

I was glowing. I could feel it. Whatever. Bask in my incandescence, woman. Stare at it, and know my fury.

My outburst seemed to get her to at least reconsider, "Do you really think this will help with that?"

I smiled, all teeth as the light coming from me started to die down, "Oh, I dunno... forcing her to interact with others in a setting where she doesn't have to think about it and get uncomfortable? Winning people over by doing cool shit and helping everyone out?" I put more effort into trying to sound as patronizing as possible than I had into anything else that day.

"...When you put it that way..." Miss Frost muttered to herself with a frown before turning toward me again, "Fine. If you must have her and she agrees, she's in. But this team will be held to the proper X-Men standard."

I had no idea what that meant. Not slapping humans civs when they were being morons? Or was it wearing tight-ass uniforms? Because with the exception of Sooraya, we definitely all had that last one covered already.

"Okay," I accepted, before realizing that my rage may have caused me to die on the first of two hills I'd walked into her office prepared to fight for, "...Also, I need something else."

"Very needy this afternoon, aren't you, Mister Marcher?" Miss Frost quipped. I tried not to look embarrassed, "I'm teasing, darling. What can I do for you?"

That was far more cordial than I'd expected after how tense things had been before, "Saberwolf got messed up in the fight with Stryker. Could we get Forge to check him out again?"

Miss Frost raised an eyebrow at how trepidatious I was being, "Of course. I don't see why you needed to preface that with anything."

It was a legitimate request, and yet I felt because it was me asking for it, there would have been push-back. Not the case, "Wolf wants to make sure I go with him so Forge doesn't upgrade him against his will again."

"I don't see anything wrong with that," Miss Frost said casually, "I would imagine this should be handled as soon as possible. We can't have the head of security leaking fluids all over the school."

"Hey, you could make escorting Wolf the inagural mission for the new team," I joked. She didn't laugh back, which I figured she wouldn't, because she didn't find me funny.

What I didn't expect was that she took my offhanded remark under consideration, "That's not the worst idea I've ever heard, Mister Marcher."

"...Are you serious?"

XxX

She was serious.

Before I knew it, I was sat in the Blackbird with Laura, Noriko, David, Julian, and Cessily. Two members of the Paladins, two members of the New Mutants, and two members of the Hellions were all represented. The latter of those two groups notoriously had bad blood between them. To keep two thirds of the team from killing each other, Mirage, a.k.a. Dani Moonstar, had been brought along as our senior X-Men member to give overall orders.

...Granted, I didn't expect any real orders to be given. She was there to babysit, and we were all smart enough to know it.

One of the perks that came with being considered a real team meant that I could fly the fucking plane now. David flew co-pilot, because he was the only other person on the team that could do so. That left poor Laura to sit in the back, straddling the proverbial line of keeping Cessily company and keeping damn near mortal enemies Noriko and Julian from getting particularly nasty with each other.

"What was that?" Julian barked after a particularly barbed line from his counterpart across the aisle, "Say that again! I dare you!"

"You heard me, Keller," Noriko shot back, taking particular pleasure in riling him up, "Or are you as bad at listening as you are at school, or at being an X-Man?"

Straight for the jugular, it seemed. We were twenty minutes into a ninety minute flight and my head had begun splitting already. None of this was going to end well. It didn't take much longer to ramp up further.

Julian had a venomous place he could go to whenever arguments reached a certain point, and he would do so without hesitation, "I don't have to take that from someone whose teammate got us killed and fucked the school."

"Don't dump what happened with Jay on the New Mutants!"

And that was enough for me. Things were about to get ugly.

"Prodigy, take the controls for a sec, please," I asked of David. He nodded and did so, knowing fully what I was about to do. He'd seen me gritting my teeth for the last several minutes.

I got up and started stomping towards the back. On my way, I stopped where Dani Moonstar was sitting, seemingly taking notes on everything happening, "You could do something about this any time, you know," I said, as I moved past her. Not that I expected her to. If she was going to, she would have by then.

She seemed just as annoyed as I was, but didn't make a move to put a stop to it, "I'm just here to see how you all do and report back in. This is your team, Solaris."

In other words – you do something about it. Message received.

"No, it's not," I complained out loud as I found myself amongst the others, "Not yet. Because if it was, I would have known better than to put those two on it."

A perceived slight sent both of their ways got Julian and Noriko to stop fighting for a moment, "Hey!" Nori was offended that I lumped her in with Julian.

The same went the other way for Julian, but it was more regarding a questioning of his capabilities, "What's that supposed to mean, Marcher? You saying I'm not good enough?"

In a fight? Sure. But in everything else? I wasn't convinced at all. Not if they were doing this on a real assignment, "What it's supposed to mean is that if I held guns to Prodigy and Wind Dancer's heads and told you two to be decent to each other for 12 hours or I'd pull the trigger, you'd both have some dead-ass S.O.'s."

"Don't joke about that," Julian said gravely. Ironic, given that he was the first to jump on the 'dead students' platform.

"I'm not joking," I said, making a note to apologize to David later, because he was dating Nori, and I knew he'd heard me, "I know we're just going to get Saberwolf fixed, but this is an actual fucking mission. Get your shit together, or I'll do my best to make sure neither of you get picked when real stuff comes up."

Me saying that, and with such confidence, left both of them stunned. Nori quickly beseeched her senior X-Men advisor, "He can't do that. Dani, can he do that?"

If she was looking for support, or reassurance that I didn't have that much pull, she was let down, "Solaris is in charge," Dani said noncommittally, though she looked disappointed, "I'm only here to observe and report."

"Observe and report," I repeated, with the ugliest sneer I could muster to display my own displeasure, "Which means quit making yourselves look bad, because that's making me look bad! I'll turn around and switch you two out with people who can actually work. It's not like we're on a deadline here."

No one told me I couldn't do that. Until I was told I couldn't do something involving what was supposed to be my team, I wouldn't say that there were no options off of the table. I'd spoken to all of them, they'd assured me that they could work. If they went back on that and showed me they couldn't, I didn't have time to play peacemaker. They could ride the bench until they shaped up.

If I could only take five people on every mission, I would make sure the ones who went didn't make things even harder.

"There aren't any New Mutants. There aren't any Hellions. There aren't any Paladins. We're-" I stopped myself when I realized we didn't have a designation yet. That would have to change soon. I liked the process of naming things, "...-Whatever our team name is going to end up being. But the point is, keep all of your petty rivalry shit at school, because if this is how you're gonna be, none of us need either of you."

I stomped back to the front of the plane and plopped down in my chair, taking the controls back over from David. I could still hear Julian and Nori arguing, but they were doing it under their breath. Whatever. As long as they didn't start duking it out, and I couldn't hear what they were chirping about syllable-for-syllable, I'd deal with it. I had an aircraft to handle.

I felt like an annoyed middle school teacher. The dynamics on this team didn't bode well. At that point, it was a shame that we weren't expecting any action. I could have used the outlet of punching something in the face.

XxX

Forge had a gigantic research facility all to himself to use for whatever he wanted - Eagle Plaza. I had never seen it until then. He legitimately had a ten-story complex that spanned a whole city block of downtown Dallas, Texas, where no one lived or really entered but him.

If ever there was a public monument to being anti-social, this was it.

He had a hangar in his building for the Blackbird. That was how big it was. Where did this guy get so much money? Did he have a means to make money? He was an inventor, so I guess he sold patents for some of his stuff.

I landed the plane, smoothly, because of course I did, and started talking to the rest of the team, "Now, this mission is going to be low-maintenance. You know... boring," I said bluntly, "But, we're in a major nerd's secret research facility, so there has to be something to do."

David seemed intrigued, which didn't surprise me. The guy was a genius, even before his powers of knowing everything the people around him knew came into play, "Are you saying we can do what we want?" He asked.

"If Forge says so," I said with a shrug before turning in my seat to glare at Julian and Noriko, "Don't fucking fight. If you two jerks fight, I'm sticking the winner and stomping on the loser afterwards. And I guess I'll kick you off of the team too," I added as an afterthought.

Cessily kept a hand on Julian to keep him from saying or doing anything antagonistic, "It's nice that you have your priorities straight, Sol," She said sarcastically, a wry smirk on her lips.

"Right? I think so too," I said, playing along as I unbuckled and stood up, getting a few satisfying pops out of my joints, "Alright, let's get our wolf-bot fixed up."

Nori scoffed unbuckled herself, walking over to David, and putting space between herself and Julian, "Whatever. This place is big enough where I don't have to see Keller's face or hear his mouth until we leave."

"The next one of you to give the other shit can stay on the plane," I said with a pointed look. I got silence, but I knew this wasn't going to be the end of it. Needless to say, I was going to make sure Hellion and Surge never got placed on the same team again for as long as I was in charge. Problems for later.

I dropped the ramp letting all of us out of the plane, where Forge stood waiting for all of us.

He was Native American, with short black hair and a banging mustache. Apparently, he had a bionic hand and leg, but I couldn't tell which was real. His clothes kept me from seeing. From what he was wearing, it looked like he'd just stepped away from working on something.

For the first time since we'd all met up to embark, Noriko smiled. She liked Forge, as he'd been the one to create the gauntlets that helped her control her electricity powers.

"Hey!" She greeted excitedly, rushing to him in a blur of enhanced speed, "How's it going, Forge? How have you been?"

Forge chuckled at her exuberant greeting, not knowing that five minutes before, she had been set to bite people's heads off, "Oh, just working on this and that. You know how it is. How are my gauntlets doing? The upgrade working out for you?"

Noriko lifted her arms to show off the devices in question, "Yeah, they're much lighter-."

I stopped paying attention, because I didn't care, instead focusing more on our entire reason for being there.

Saberwolf seemed apprehensive – a new thing for him. He never seemed rattled by anybody or anything, but the guy who could look at him and see what made him tick was probably someone he had reason to be wary of. It would have been funny if I couldn't understand where he was coming from. It was like a fear of doctors, only worse because as an A.I., he didn't really have any rights.

No wonder he wanted me to look after him.

Forge came over to Saberwolf and looked down at his patient, "I can tell from looking at you what's wrong. Let's get you fixed up, shall we?"

Being Wolf's bodyguard for the duration of the mission, I took that moment to step in, "Ah-ah-ah, hold on one minute," I said, putting a hand on Wolf's head, "A little wolfie told me that you upgraded him last time without his consent."

Forge seemed confused, as clearly, this was news to him, "He had a problem with it? He didn't say anything to me about it."

Wolf finally took the opportunity to speak up for himself, "Because I was offline for the duration of my maintenance. When I was restarted, it was already done."

"Oh," Was all Forge could say, taken aback as he was. He looked between the two of us, and then at everyone else who had been listening with varying degrees of amusement, "...Well, this is awkward. Sorry, Saberwolf."

We still needed him to fix Wolf, so it had to be water under the bridge for now, "Just don't bad touch my dog again," I said.

I immediately realized my mistake when Saberwolf wheeled around on me, "I am not your dog, Bellamy Marcher."

The A.I. was not pleased at being claimed, not that I could blame him. I immediately started coming up with excuses, "No! I meant dog as in 'd-a-w-g'" I explained to try smoothing things over, "You know... 'dawg'. Friends, peeps, crew, comrades, dunnies. Whatever the fuck people are calling each other nowadays."

I grinned and held up my hand for a 'too sweet'. Laura stared at me, knowing that I was full of shit. I manually turned her head away to look in a different direction and kept smiling. Wolf also stared at me for a few uncomfortable seconds and then proceeded to ignore me and walk away after Forge. That was fair. I had made all of that up on the spot, after all.

We had free reign of the building, within reason of course, but I was relishing in the fact that I had a chance to not have to babysit for a few minutes. Mirage could keep track of whatever crap they got into while I was treating them like functional adults.

I found the nearest comfortable surface I could and got off of my feet. Despite having just taken a flight, I kicked my feet up and lay down, "And I thought leading the Paladins was hard," I said to myself, before noticing that Laura hadn't gone anywhere. I started talking to her, "I had enough trouble trying to get four of you motherfuckers to respect me. Now I've got to convince fifteen of you to get with the program?"

Laura walked over and sat down with me by my feet, "You don't think you can control the team?"

I looked down the length of my body at her and grinned, "Oh, I can control the team. But it's not like I'm a 'my way or the highway' kind of guy," If someone had a better idea of how to do something than me, I'd listen to them. That was always how my style had been. And if someone was really being subordinate, I had no problems slapping the taste out of someone's mouth. In fact, the prick in me was kind of waiting for an excuse, "If I can't trust some people to work together with others without killing each other though, this won't be good."

Green eyes scanned me carefully as Laura chose her next words, "Do you really think their grudges would come up in a life-threatening moment?"

It shouldn't have needed to even be a question, "Stryker's attack was a week ago. If that didn't make people shape up and figure out that we need each other, I don't want to know what it'll take," Any petty squabbles should have lessened in importance after burying actual people, "I don't know... maybe that's just easy for me to say because I don't have beef with anyone right now."

But I used to. I used to have beef with Julian, in fact! Enough that I'd been prepared to have static with the entire Hellions team at one point because of it. And we never really buried the hatchet officially; we just... let it go. We didn't even avoid each other until we stopped being mad. We just slowly got over it. He was still an asshole, I was still an asshole, we still made each other mad, but it just ceased being a thing.

"I wish I could just make them fight and get it over with..." I remarked idly before my brain stopped on that point, "Wait. Why can't I just make them fight and get it over with?"

Laura raised an eyebrow, not quite following my line of logic, "You want them to fight now?"

I nodded and explained myself, "I'm pretty sure I said it to someone before, but you probably weren't there. The New Mutants and the Hellions have heat that's lasted longer than I've gone to school with them because they never threw the fuck down."

Part of the reason Julian and I got past out issues was because we got to slap each other around a bit at some point and beat some respect into each other. THEN we worked together with things trying to kill us on two separate occasions. Julian and Nori never did the first part, which was important with two headstrong people. Fighting was never really allowed directly.

Well, I would allow it. No one had to know about it but us, and if I really tried, I could find some way to make it happen. All it would take was a little creativity, and a lot of discretion. I wasn't going to do this for everyone who had problems with each other, but I felt like those two needed it.

...Besides, it would probably be really funny to watch. That was the jerk in me thinking about it.

Laura was skeptical and with good reason, "I'm not sure getting teammates to fight is the best idea to mend fences."

Eh, sometimes fences needed to be torn down completely so you could build new ones.

"Mmmph..." I grunted in thought, repeatedly nudging Laura with my foot to try and annoy her, "Well, everyone else better figure it out quickly, because eventually, we're gonna stop getting gimme missions."

"Hopefully no time soon," Laura said, completely ignoring my attempt to pick on her, "I like doing things that don't involve hurting others, or being in danger," She eventually side-eyed me sharply, "I would stop that if you want to keep your leg."

I just grinned at her, having finally gotten to her, "You and I both know you won't cut my foot off."

She popped her claws and set them against my ankle, "Are you sure about that? After all, we can just get Forge to replace it," She asked, an eyebrow raised in challenge, "Right at the joint. It would be clean."

I sat up properly and took hold Laura's hand in mine, running my fingers over her claws with my other hand. I'd never touched them before. I didn't think she'd even let me. And yet, she did, "All of your flirting is so predatory," I remarked.

Laura watched what I was doing closely, her breathing measured and tight, as though she would scare me away from what I was doing otherwise. Even I wondered what the hell had gotten into me.

I'd never actually gotten a good look at her claws until then. They were quite warm, despite the metal, probably because they literally rested in her arm until they needed to be out. I didn't play around with the sharp edges, aside from tapping the tip of my index finger on the end of them. Even doing that much easily drew blood.

Laura's claws disappeared back inside of her hand. She grabbed hold of my bleeding finger and slowly brought it to her face, "I wasn't flirting. But if you assumed I was, and you were flirting back, you must like it," Holding full eye contact with me, she put my finger in her mouth and swirled her tongue around it.

My brain fucking turned off. It froze on the last image my eyes saw and my mind couldn't move past it. All I could focus on was the feeling of what was happening. I took a mental snapshot of every second, until it finally ended. It had seemed like an eternity, and yet still far too quick for my tastes.

Speaking of tastes, Laura seemed to savor the taste of my blood before getting up and leaving me where I sat, "That was me flirting," She matter-of-factly said in parting.

The loud voice in my head that told me to take her back into the Blackbird and mount her like a lion had to be brutally smothered. It caused me physical pain not to pursue her, but we were on a mission, and I couldn't. I knew that I couldn't, and damn it, more importantly, she knew that I knew that I couldn't.

It had long since been time to dispel once and for all with the fiction that Laura Kinney didn't know what she was doing. She knew exactly what she was doing. The girl was an assassin - thoughtful, methodical, patient, knowledgeable - and she was carrying out a hit on my sense of propriety and restraint.

The moment I felt like Laura was out of ear shot, I clamped both hands over my mouth to muffle my voice and let out the loudest yell I could, thrashing around in my seat, "RAAAAGH! Why the FUCK is she so fine!?"

Was such an outburst unbecoming of a team leader? Maybe. But no one related to the team saw it, so no one could judge me.

I don't think any of you really understand what was running through my head at that point. It was so hard trying to be good. It honestly took every fiber of home training I'd had instilled in me by a loving family to keep from chasing her down and throwing her over my shoulder caveman-style. But on the bright side, I'd come to one important decision – that it was officially on.

Before, I had done things to Laura just to try and get her to react like a human being. After months we were finally getting somewhere with that. But now, if she was set on trying to drive me out of my mind, there wasn't any reason I couldn't play that game too. She wanted me, after all. And while the feeling was, admittedly, mutual, I was waiting out the grace period of my breakup. Not because of what others would think, but out of courtesy of Megan being good to me for as long as she did.

...Though, wasn't the accepted theory for mourning a relationship one day for every month it lasted? If that were the case, I'd long since worn that out. That meant it was time for the equivalent of emotional terrorism. She was going to jump my bones before I jumped hers. This I solemnly vowed to myself. My pride demanded it.

...What had I been doing again?

...

Oh! I was supposed to be sitting in on Saberwolf's tune-up. He was going to be pissed when I finally got there. It had totally slipped my mind once a pretty girl's tongue had slipped around my finger.

I looked down at said finger and the red nick that had been leaking blood not too long before. I stuck the finger in my mouth and walked on to find Wolf and Forge. Having that finger in my mouth was the closest equivalent to having Laura's tongue in my mouth that I was going to get that day.

Why didn't I do that when she was still there? It definitely would have thrown her off. Hindsight was, of course, 20-20.

"Goddamn you, Laura."

I felt like I was going to be saying that a lot more in the future.

XxX

Once we made it back to school in one piece, I couldn't just keep things to myself. I was bursting at the seams to tell someone, but out of the small number of people whose opinions I actually cared for, there was only one that I trusted to really keep me in check if I was wrong.

...She wasn't really excited to have this job, but then again, it had never been her choice.

Hisako just sat and stared at me like I was insane after hearing me out. I had recanted the events of the day at Eagle Plaza in no small detail during a study session in the library. She was still basically holding my hand through the higher math courses. Well, that night, I was holding her hand for a quick trip through my psyche and thought processes.

"Bel…" She eventually said.

I nodded in understanding, fully aware of where this was going, "I know."

Hisako shook her head to try and start over again, "Bellamy, this is such a bad idea," She said, hand up to her temple. I was already giving her a headache, "This-. This is an amazingly bad idea."

"I know. I know it's a bad idea," I admitted before leaning forward, almost begging to be vindicated, "But I want to. I really want to."

Hisako gave a quick, meaningful glance to the instruments in her hands - a mechanical pencil and a graphing calculator. She seemed to be contemplating the likelihood of smacking some sense into me with a TI-84, "You were the one who said you won't date anyone on your team, no matter how hot you think they are. You said it's stupid, and I agreed with you."

She sounded so disappointed. For once, Hisako and I had been on the same page when it came to some kind of personal philosophy, a very rare occurrence, and then I went and threw it right out the window the moment my scary-hot teammate decided she wanted me.

I was a little too defensive for my own good, "You weren't there!" Also, Hisako wasn't into women (as far as I knew), so even if she had been there, she wouldn't have gotten the same thing out of it I did, "It's so hard to keep my hands off… and now that she knows she can, she's gonna go harder. I didn't even think Laura knew how to be sexy until it was right there in my face."

Hisako had no sympathy for me. Perhaps she would have had she not been privy to my solution to fight fire with fire, "So, your solution is to build up tensions like the Cold War until one of you hits the button and blows everything up?"

I perked up, allowing her words to sink in and marinate, "…That was an astute way of putting it. I appreciate that metaphor," I told her.

"Ugh!" Hisako smashed her head down on her arms and the library table to let some of her frustrations out. She slowly peered up at me, eyes narrowed spitefully, "Why are you telling me this? Go talk to Eddie about your creepy libido."

Wingman admittedly had been my first choice, but he was off the table for multiple reasons, "If I talk to Eddie, he'll talk to Cessily. If he talks to Cessily, she'll start helping Laura, which will make my plan harder," My selfish, ego-driven plans, "…Also, Cess will probably gloat about it," Which my sizeable ego would not stand for, if I could help it, "I'm telling you because you're supposed to be my conscience."

Unimpressed, Hisako sat back in her chair, arms crossed over her chest, "And as your conscience, I'm telling you 'no'."

Indeed, she was. The problem was, I didn't want to hear 'no' right then. I had pretty much come to her for permission; for someone whose judgment I trusted to tell me that it was okay to be the level of asshole I wanted to be, "…I need to find a second, bad influence conscience," I decided out loud, "Then I can have you two battle each other like Dr. Dre and Eminem to make my life decisions for me."

This was the limit of her patience with my b.s., "Okay! Okay! Okay!" She repeated, more for herself than for me, "If you must put yourself in a position to do this profane, ill-advised thing with Laura… can you at least take her out on a proper date?"

She asked me that question as though my normal courting process was to point at my junk and thrust it in someone's general direction. What kind of animal did she take me for? "…Despite the fact that every proper date I've ever had since coming to this school has ended in me almost dying? Yes. Yes, I can."

Hisako smirked at me, sensing my irritation and finding it within herself to pounce upon it, "Are you sure? Because the way you were talking, it sounded like if you could convince her to go with you to the nearest broom closet, you'd have done it," She clicked her tongue pitifully, "Three weeks without getting laid is really doing a number on you."

My eyes went wide at the offhanded remark, "How do you know the last time I-?"

Hisako took far too much joy in throwing me off of my game, "-Megan never had any problems sharing it with the world when she let you hit it."

XxX

It was late, and in the cold, plain environment of the Danger Room, I found myself getting bored quickly. But I had sent out messages, received affirmative replies, and had to hang around for the people I sent them to.

It wasn't as creepy being alone in the Danger Room after hours as I thought it would be. After it went nuts and flew the coop, so to speak, it was just a big, empty space. The school was still in the process of repurposing it, so no one went in there anymore. Funnily enough, the best place for an unsanctioned showdown was the obvious place where a fight would and should happen.

Oh, yeah. A fight. Yeah… that was what I was there for.

Of the two people I messaged, Julian was the first to saunter in, dressed in his uniform, as I had requested. I was in mine as well. He didn't seem pleased to be there, "What's this all about, Marcher? Don't think you can start flexing your muscles like you're better than me just because you're in charge."

I frowned at him in return, "You always could have not showed up," I honestly had expected someone to say no. Yet, they did not, "If you thought I was going to throw my weight around, why'd you even bother?"

Julian looked away, trying to play things cool, "Brian leaving school sucks even more than I thought it would. Without him in the room anymore, it's kind of boring," I got it. By then, it had become abundantly clear that despite how he oftentimes acted, he didn't like being alone. He enjoyed being around people, usually as the center of attention, but he enjoyed being around people regardless, "What did you call me here for?" He asked, quickly getting back on topic.

"Just a minute," I asked of him, "Someone else is coming. When they get here, I'll explain."

We stood around shooting the shit for a few more minutes before we were finally joined by the last part of my little gathering. The big doors to the Danger Room opened and closed, signifying their arrival. I immediately braced for proverbial fireworks.

Noriko walked in, at first surprised to see Julian and me, before her expression turned to a sneer, "What is he doing here?"

"Took the words right out of my mouth, Ashida," Julian shot back, glaring a hole into her as well, "What the fuck is this?"

I walked between the two of them, bringing both of their ire onto me for the time being, "Guys, I know what happened today wasn't a really dangerous mission and all, but we can't have that. I was mad about it earlier, but I've had some time to think."

Nori rolled her eyes, trying to guess where I was going with things, "So, what? You want us to sit around and talk it out? Maybe have a little 'kumbaya' session? Not happening."

Julian scoffed at the idea, literally turning his nose up at it, "First and only time I'll ever agree with Ashida. She's right," He said, beginning to walk away, "I should have stayed in the room."

"…Would have done us all a favor," Nori muttered, not trying to hide it whatsoever.

Upon hearing Noriko's unprompted remark, Julian wheeled around, a faint green glow around his body as he floated over to face off with her, "Alright, that's it!"

For once, I didn't step in and stop them. This was what I'd brought them there for in the first place. I moved off to the far end of the room and leaned against the wall while they continued to verbally tear into each other. Thankfully, we were two basements underneath the school, and the big metal doors were closed. They screamed at each other for minutes, flaring their powers back and forth. It was all a lot of bluster, until suddenly, it wasn't.

Something pointed out of Julian's mouth was of course what set it off, "Always with something smart to say! I'm pretty sure Alleyne would appreciate it if you stopped running your mouth and started using it to-!"

Before he could finish what would have undoubtedly been a vulgar reference to fellatio, a quick punch to the face from Nori's metal gauntlets sent him stumbling back. Julian touched at his lips in shock, looking down at the blood and running his tongue over the cut in his mouth. When he looked over at me, I didn't move. In fact, I egged it on.

"I don't know why you're looking at me, dude," I said, gesturing to Nori, "You gonna sit back and take that? She drew blood."

Nori gaped at me only long enough to realize what I'd said. By then Julian had lifted himself off of the ground and launched himself at her in an effort to get her back. She was able to block the punch, but he hit her hard enough to send her sliding back across the floor on her ass.

Nori picked herself up, electricity brimming from her entire body, eyes glowing blue. As Julian flew around the Danger Room, looking for an opportunity to swoop in, Nori took it as a good chance for target practice.

Worrying little for collateral damage, she let loose with more strength than I'd seen her use at once. It was all power and no control. Electricity branched off and flew everywhere. Even I had to keep my head on a swivel to keep from getting hit, and she wasn't even aiming at me.

In the air, Julian had to put up a telekinetic forcefield to protect himself. Despite that, he was still forced back to the wall with each blast Nori gave him. She walked him down, firing again and again, waiting for him to break. In her hubris, she got too close, and Julian made her pay for it.

"That's IT!" Julian bellowed, turning his forcefield into a telekinetic wave that pushed everything within its range away from him. His range was everything in the Danger Room. Nori and I were knocked back, and Julian was free from her bombardment, which was bad news for her.

Nori didn't stay still to wait for him to retaliate. One of the things her electric powers gave her were enhanced speed. When she tapped into it, she was even faster than me - far faster.

If you remember, there are three distinct rules I came up with when fighting telekinetics. Apparently, Nori had read my pamphlet, because she stuck to rule number one like it was a lifeline. That rule was to never stay still.

She rushed around the Danger Room, trying to take potshots at Julian's elevated form whenever she was presented with his back or side. She actually managed to get him a few times, and I knew they hurt. It was all over his face. I had never had the displeasure of fighting Noriko, and watching how she dealt with Julian, I was grateful for that.

Julian had to scramble between protecting himself and trying to stop Nori. His powers could only work as fast as he could process what was going on around him. He couldn't focus on her enough to grab her. Using his powers to try and catch Nori was like someone using their hand to try and grab a buzzing fly out of the air... only the fly was a girl on the ground with blue hair and an attitude problem.

...And much like a fly, it was much easier to catch her once he figured out that he could cast a net instead of trying to just snatch her.

Eventually, Nori ran headlong into a telepathic wall. Before she could change course and move in a different direction, she could herself trapped. Julian's grip had transitioned into one the size of her body that held her in place. She struggled for as long as she could, until Julian provided enough pressure to immobilize her entirely.

I inhaled sharply through my teeth, as I could see how this was going to devolve if things continued as they were. I was ready to step in, but I had to let it play out. If I stopped it before there was a resolution, it wouldn't solve anything.

"Ashida..." Julian said with heavy breaths. He winced from the damage he'd received from Noriko's electricity blasts, "...Give it up. It's over," Nori shook her head and upped her output. Gritting his teeth with effort, his fingers slowly started curling inward as he started squeezing the fight out of her, "Damn it, why!? Why do you hate me so much!?"

Nori's eyes crackled with just as much electricity as the rest of her body, "Fuck you!" She attempted to discharge, but Julian's telekinetic grip contained all of it. He needed both hands worth of focus to do so, however, "This is what you wanted! It's what you always wanted, since the day we met!"

Julian instead launched the girl across the room. Her body hit the metal wall and slid down to the floor. I thought he'd stopped for the same reason I figured he did; because he wasn't willing to risk putting more pressure on Nori to make her quit, lest her output slip and he accidentally crush her. When she raised her head, I saw a different possible reason.

Tears. She was crying. I had seen plenty of girls cry. I had never seen Noriko cry. Not from pain, not from embarrassment or defeat, not during any of the memorial ceremonies. Never. I hazarded to guess that Julian hadn't either, from how he reacted.

"What... the-?" He didn't even know where to start, "What are you talking about?"

Nori laughed and sobbed simultaneously, "Of course you don't fucking remember!" She said, "The first day I came here... or tried to come here. When I was at the gate..." She trailed off, staring directly into Julian's eyes, "...Keller, do you remember ever talking to a homeless kid standing outside of the school?"

I looked between the two of them, realization sinking in for me at the same time it did for Julian, "Oh, dude," I said, "Dude, don't tell me..."

Julian found himself at a loss for words, "I... I..."

While he might have had trouble finding his voice, Noriko did not, "I just wanted some help! I couldn't control my powers! I didn't have anywhere to go! And I finally found out about somewhere that maybe could help make things better..." It sounded difficult for her to think about those times, "I get there, and it looks like a dream... and some smug, rich asshole inside looks down his nose at me through the bars and tells me to get lost. Just... looks at me like I'm garbage and tells me that Xavier's isn't for people like me."

I knew he'd been a real piece of work before I showed up, but I hadn't been prepared for that level of douchebaggery. I had been able to move past my little feud with Julian, but if I had been in Nori's shoes, I probably would have never let that grudge die either.

"That wasn't what I-... Ashida, I was talking about-." He seemed ready to argue, until he realized that it didn't matter what he'd meant at the time. There was no good look for him here, "...Did I really?"

Nori nodded, done crying, but eyes still full of tears, "-And you never stopped being an asshole! You were an asshole to me, and all of my friends who helped me! Who let me come here! You were trying to fuck one of my friends, and you were still a piece of shit!"

Julian swallowed heavily, as though a lead weight were going down his gullet, "I didn't even know that had been you from back then."

"Does it matter!?" Noriko howled, jumping to her feet, fists clenched, "Does that make it better!?"

"Yes! Well, no, but-!" Julian stumbled over his words before finding his place, "I just thought you were some angry chick with a grudge because the Hellions were the tops. I didn't know you..." -Had an actual reason to hate his fucking guts that he did no favors to assuage over the following year and a half? "...I didn't know."

That summary wasn't good enough for Nori. Not after eighteen months of hating him, "Well, now you do," She stomped away, stopping by me, frustration all over her face and body language, "Happy, Bel?" She asked acid in her tone.

The answer was no. None of that made me happy.

I thought it would just be a knock-down, drag-out, and that would be the sum of it. Just a little something to let them get it out of their system, give me a few laughs, blow off some steam. I thought their issue had been pettier than it was, because no one would ever tell me what the deal was. None of the New Mutants, none of the Hellions (who I doubted knew if Julian himself didn't). No one. I hadn't known Nori had been living on the streets before coming to Xavier's. I hadn't known any of it.

I had been wrong. There had been a real gripe there that had only festered over time.

I kept everything I felt off of my face, putting on the most neutral expression I could, "We'll talk later, okay?" Despite that, I knew I'd let some concern bleed into what I said.

Nori's expression softened just a bit, and she nodded before walking away, self-consciously holding herself all the way out of the Danger Room doors. That left me and Julian alone with the awkwardness.

I didn't know what to say. He didn't know what to say. Neither of us knew whether or not to walk off until Nori was farther away, who would go first, or anything. We were just stuck with each other, and the silence was crushing.

Julian looked pained, and it wasn't because of what Nori done; more because of what she had said, "That was a long time ago. I'm not the same guy. I-," He tried to explain before shaking his head free of the excuses. The person better suited to saying these things to had left, and it probably wouldn't have mattered if he'd said them to her, "...Things have changed since then. A lot of things. My parents disowned me over the summer."

I didn't know why he would tell me that. It was the kind of thing a proud guy like him wouldn't let slip so easily. My mind quickly harkened back to the whirlwind few days that Laura and I had in California, courtesy of the Facility, eventually imposing upon the Hellions' hospitality, "Was that because of-?"

He quickly stopped me and eased my fears, "No, it wasn't your thing with the clone-, err, Laura," He actually corrected himself regarding her designation, "Many, many things happened after you left. You ever hear of someone called 'Kingmaker'? Never mind."

I had to stop him. He was talking a lot to try and do damage control. It wasn't necessary, "You don't have to tell me all of this, Julian. Knowing it won't change anything here," I said, gesturing between the two of us.

He was still on the team, and it had been a while since I'd personally despised him. I wasn't about to go back to those days for something that had happened to someone else before I'd ever known either of them.

"Right," Julian sighed, running a hand through his hair, "Marcher... am I a good person?"

I was blunt about it. I had to be, "No," By this point, we were actually friends, and if he was asking me straight up, he needed to hear it, "You could be. You have people that love you, who see the good in you. You're good to them. But shit like that... you still do shit like that."

Not as much, clearly, since hearing it from Nori legitimately caught me off guard. But even if the last time he'd really bullied people had been before the summer break, that was still fresh. It was still recent enough that any change since then couldn't be considered the rule as opposed to the exception now.

Still, it wasn't like I had a lot of room to talk. Case in point, the current situation. Maybe that was why he felt comfortable saying what he'd said to me before about being disowned? Because we were both kind of assholes.

Enough time had passed that it felt appropriate for Julian to leave, so he did so, a difference in his gait. I remained behind. Last man out. There was a lot to unpack. A lot to digest.

And that was just one story involving two people out of fifteen on this team.

My team.

Before leaving, I looked up at the observation area above the Danger Room. There, I saw Mister Summers standing, arms crossed, staring down at me impassively. The headmaster of the school. The leader of the X-Men. What was he thinking? Was he judging me? My team?

I shook my head and walked away. He didn't follow. I didn't get criticism. I didn't get a lecture. I didn't get a pep talk. I didn't get anything from him. Either way, I had a lot of work to do. It was a good thing I was an asshole with insomnia, because after all, there was no rest for the wicked.

And that's the chapter. So, how did that hit for you?

I'll be honest, that last scene with Julian and Noriko came to me as I was writing it. For better or worse, it just felt right as it was coming out.

When I do fan fiction, one of the great things that I like to do is to isolate certain things that happen in the story, and aren't really touched upon again, but can help explain lots about why things are the way they are. Sticking to canon in a way that helps characterize people and their interactions within your own story.

In this case, in the comics where the New Mutants and the Hellions are introduced, they have a strong rivalry for several reasons (many involving Julian at the forefront, because of course). One of the more contentious relationships between the two sides in that run is Julian and Noriko.

In the New Mutants series where Noriko is introduced, she's homeless, trying to go to Xavier's for help with her powers. Julian basically shoos her away like mentioned here, and it's never touched upon again when she becomes a student, or ever again even through the New X-Men series that follows. In my mind, I took that and just blew it up, because it's so personal. It just seems like such a pretty fucking logical base to start with if you're going to despise someone.

If you've ever read it, and read the rest of the issues introducing her, imagine someone doing that to you in your time of need. Then imagine having to be around that person a lot for the foreseeable future. I can personally say that even if I had to be on a team with them in a life-threatening situation, it wouldn't be so easy for me to suck it up and let it go, especially if it's never resolved.

I'm pretty sure no one else reading this vibed with it the way I did while I was writing it, but I enjoyed doing it. I just wanted to share that. Oh, and I should mention that writing the Laura scene and Bellamy's reaction was also pretty damn fun. That was the point where I got on a roll.

Anyway, this is all I have for now, guys. I hope you enjoyed.

Kenchi out.