Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel.
I am obligated to say this before every chapter, otherwise Marvel secret police hide somewhere around my house and wait for me to come out so they can abscond with me. They got me twice. Part of their interrogation method is making you watch Ghost Rider 2 on a loop.
But the joke's on them. I love Nicolas Cage.
Chapter 41: Loose Ends
The mysterious hole hidden in the back of the Mets' stadium carried us to a new destination altogether. How had Roekel been able to hide a hole in Citi Field leading to the sewers of NYC?
…A lot of us weren't fans of that development. Yet, we explored regardless.
"This place smells like ass," Wing remarked astutely, trying to cover his nose as best he could.
Hellion rolled his eyes and strode ahead, taking point in our formation, "Duh, dude. It's a sewer. Of course, it smells like ass."
"I'm burning this uniform once this mission is over," Armor asserted seriously. I absolutely believed she would, regardless if it would piss off our superiors, "Even if I wash the smell out, I'm pretty sure there'll be this phantom odor, you know? Like, looking at this suit will make me feel like I'm smelling it."
Unpleasant scent aside, we'd had to deal with a few automated defenses, but nothing that couldn't be destroyed in a matter of seconds. The fact that there had been anything put up to deal with intruders must have meant we were on the right track.
After a few hiccups getting to that point, it felt like we were rolling. Sure, Hellion and Wing had gotten a bit banged up, and... the more I thought about it, the more I realized things might not have been going as smoothly as I felt they were. After all, we were walking next to a river of shit. Seemed like a metaphor of some sort.
Mercury let out a sigh – a risky endeavor, taking a deep breath inside of a sewer. Then again, she didn't need to breathe, "I really though this whole X-Men thing would be more... I dunno."
"-Glamorous?" Wing finished in his girlfriend's stead, "Same. All the stories you ever hear about are the big battles to save the world or help people. Never stuff like this."
To be fair, they gave all of us full disclosure about the danger from day one. For fuck's sake, there was a graveyard on campus. The more mundane unpleasant things like this were likely to slip one's mind.
We were able to find our way through the veritable maze before us because of the Cuckoos leading us from afar via Cerebra. They could still feel Quire and used that to keep us pointed in the right direction. This was good, as I would have felt terrible about doing it the old-fashioned way - by dragging a tracker along with us who could show us where to go by scent. Laura and Nicky would have had a bad time down with us in the sewer.
"You're close to Quentin," We all heard the Cuckoos say in unison in our heads, "Everyone, be careful."
We were already on high alert, but still, their direction was too vague to act on, "...Just how close is close?" I asked aloud.
The answer to that question was received when the sewer began to shake and tear itself apart around us. The ceiling fell down, causing our group to split to avoid getting buried. Enough of a wall collapsed that I could see daylight, and I took it, blasting out the rest so I and whoever managed to follow me out could escape.
I almost fell into the East River, along with Pixie and Armor. By the time I turned around to get more of us out, the way we'd come from closed off.
"Damn it!" I shouted before calming down. The others were with Hellion. With his powers, he could protect them all from a cave-in, "Hellion, come in. What's the situation on your side?"
It took a moment for him to respond, but when he did, I could hear crashing and other noises in the background, "Everyone's fine, but we're kind of busy right now, Marcher!"
That sounded like they were in a fight, if I ever heard. Crap. They separated us before taking their pick of who to go after. We'd been whittling them down up to that point, taking down three of theirs up to that point.
"Bel, look!"
As I'd contemplated finding a way to get back into the sewers from another opening, the ship we'd been pursuing started to rise from the river. If it surfaced from such a hiding place in the middle of the city, risking revealing itself in such a way, that meant it was about to take off.
Pixie was the one that pointed it out, "If that thing gets away, we'll have to find it all over again," She bemoaned.
"No way," I growled, charging as much energy between my hands as I could in short order, "I would rather have sex with a running blender than chase this stupid thing down again!"
Armor went wide-eyed and took a safe step away when she realized that I was charging a Lux Bomb again. There was no need to be too scared though. It wasn't like it was as big as the one I used in Limbo. I didn't have time for that, and it wasn't a good idea to use something that strong in the middle of New York City anyway.
We hadn't had any weapons on the Blackbird to fight with when the ship had shot us down before, but we weren't on the Blackbird now.
*BOOM!*
We weren't on the Blackbird, and I was better than any cannon that could be mounted to a plane like that to begin with. The Lux Bomb impacted off of the side of the spaceship as it started rising above the water. The sight of the explosion ripping out a whole side of the thing, along with the sound of it splashing back into the water was extremely satisfying.
It was the time to pounce... but the team.
The team was split, true, but Hellion had been a squad leader at a point in time. Mercury's squad leader, in fact. And Wing was good enough to figure into that equation on his own. My first thought was that they could handle it. It was quickly snuffed out by the thought that even if they could, it was playing into the enemy's plans. Just because my crew could probably deal with the ambush, didn't mean it was smart to leave them to do so.
Of course, if an attack of that sort was launched while the ship had tried to take off, the ambush had likely been a diversion to allow the ship to evade us. I had grounded it, but who knew for how long?
In the end, it didn't matter. Splitting us up once today wound up with Cess and Hellion both getting injured. We weren't doing that again.
Armor apparently shared my brain, and preempted anything I was going to say, "Pixie, can you teleport me back into the sewer?" She asked.
Pixie alternated between staring at Armor and at the downed ship, "What? But the bad guys are stuck right there," She pointed out.
Armor nodded and nudged me, "Yeah, and if it somehow tries to take off again, I'm sure Sol can just blast it back down to earth," She said, "Pop me in, pop back out to back him up, and you two can get a closer look. Can you do it?"
Pixie still seemed hesitant to drop another of her allies off into the fray, but when she looked at me and I nodded my consent, she gave in, "Yeah," She confirmed, moving close to Armor, "I'll be right back," She said to me.
I gave her a small smile and turned my eyes to Armor, "Be careful."
She rolled her eyes in return, "Please. You have more of a habit of getting hurt during these things than I do," She remarked cheekily, "See you in a minute."
"Sihal novarum chinoth!"
One pink portal around the two of them later, and I started running along the riverside to get closer to the ship. Pixie wouldn't be long. Hopefully the others would follow soon, but with the numbers they had, they should have been fine.
I had been told in the past that I lacked a sense of self-preservation. This was just another example of that flaw in my operating procedure. Sure, sending backup helped them, but what about me? I had isolated myself for the time being. And I had no idea what else there was in store for me. Still, I had to at least keep close to the ship. It was what we were there for, after all.
And by 'keep close', I meant 'go inside'. It wasn't like it was hard. After all, I'd blown a gigantic hole into the side of it. Surprisingly buoyant, it hadn't started sinking to the bottom of the river yet. To my abundant good fortune, the hole in the ship led to the room where we'd last seen Jay and Quire's container.
Ha! Congratulations on playing yourself, Van Roekel. That's what you get for making the observation window inside your ship tougher than your ship's exterior.
It didn't take me long to find Quire's container. It had X-Men branding on it, and was the only thing in the room with glowing goop in it. My only problem was that I'd have to lug it out of there myself for the time being. Oh well. I was a strapping young lad. I could throw it over my shoulders like Atlas and power it out of there until someone else stronger than me could take it off my hands.
I didn't really want to be that close to Quire, but at least he wasn't able to get into my head and say anything to me.
"Took you long enough, douchebag."
Crap. Strike that last thing.
"Jesus," I muttered as I squeezed the two of us through the opening I'd just come through, "What, did you spend all the time you've been shut up training? Just so you could yap at me again?" I might have been flattered if I hadn't been so annoyed.
"I've been asleep, asshole," Quire rebutted, " You know how boring it gets staying in here doing jack shit but watching you losers? Sometimes I doze off for a while."
Asleep? For weeks? Because I hadn't heard a peep out of him in forever. I thought it was because I'd had Ruth practice her telepathy on me, and she shoved defenses in my head. Wishful thinking, perhaps, "Oh, so fucking with me wasn't entertaining enough for you?"
"It kinda loses its luster when you already hate yourself more than I could ever egg you on to."
Ouch. Hurtful, yes, but not wholly inaccurate. Whatever. Once I dropped him back in Dr. McCoy's lab, I could go back to trying to ignore his existence and antagonizing him whenever I couldn't. As a matter of fact, I figured I might as well get a head-start on that latter thing.
"Fine," I conceded as I boost-jumped us from the waterlogged ship back to the riverbank, "But if you're going to keep fucking with me while you're awake, I request that instead of Marcher, or whatever nasty name you want to throw my way, you refer to me as 'The Face That Runs The Place'. We can find a way to shorten that for convenience."
"Hard pass," Quire replied, "...But now that you mention faces... I think it's time I meet you face-to-face."
I knocked on the container illustratively, and also to mess with him, "How you gonna do that, trapped in there?"
"I'm not trapped in here, idiot," Quire said meanly. Before I could ask a follow-up question, he sent a warning my way, "...Heads up."
A sleek, black armored suit shot up from the crashed ship and hurtled toward me, green exhaust spilling from the jets that propelled it.
Not keen on dealing with whatever the unidentified flying object was, I started blasting. A green defensive field formed around the suit that nullified my attack. Once it fell, the individual in the suit retaliated by firing green energy rockets at me. They were fast. Faster than most energy projectiles I was used to having shot at me.
And they exploded too. So, when I dodged, I still got knocked away from the force of the blast.
I hit the ground and slid across the dirt on my side, feeling the skin on my arm get torn up. That would suck later, but it wasn't the kind of thing that would slow me down. I popped back up and managed to get off a shot to keep the enemy at bay. He stopped coming my way but threw up his stupid energy field again. Even if I didn't turn the tide right then and there, I'd bought myself a chance to get up and try again.
As the suit got closer, I was able to see the face behind the visor. It was the same face as the man on the screen we'd confronted when we'd first boarded the ship. Dr. Niles Van Roekel.
I laughed while I stood, setting Quire's container to the side. I couldn't rightly carry him around and fight at the same time, "Didn't think you'd get your own hands dirty on this one. Aren't you a man of science?"
As if that meant anything. There were plenty of intellectual individuals capable of opening up a cap of whoop-ass. I knew at least two in Dr. McCoy and Dr. Richards. I was just trying to needle the guy.
It seemed to work too, as Dr. Van Roekel scoffed at what I was insinuating, "As if you and your ilk have left me any alternative," He gazed down at the arm of his suit and flexed his fingers, "And true, my Turlin race's genetic makeup denies me the instinct and talent for aggression and war... but I've had a very long time to observe the beings of this planet. Earth has given me more study material than I could have imagined."
Hooray, Earth. Undisputed champions of violence in the Milky Way galaxy.
"All of my research has gone into this Minutemen suit," Van Roekel said, "With this? I'm capable of holding my own and overcoming even you mutants."
So, really good technology was the key to beating me? Yeah, to be fair, I guess Saberwolf routinely stomped me, but I still didn't buy it, and I let him know as much.
"Just stomping around in a fancy suit isn't going to secure you a win in a fight. Not against us, anyway," That being said, the armored exoskeleton he wore looked very familiar. In fact, I felt like I'd seen something like it before, "I've been seeing a lot of lame-ass suits like yours lately."
Dr. Van Roekel seemed to pause in thought before nodding, "Yes, you may have come across some of my previous, lesser designs," He said, "They seemed to be very effective, even when their wearers brazenly attacked your home. Imagine how much more effective they would have been with the slightest use of strategy."
It took me a second, but not too long, as I'd been thinking about the Purifiers' attack on the school in the first place. When it clicked, I felt it in my bones. Dr. Van Roekel took advantage of my clearly shocked reaction and went right for me.
When he fired more exploding energy blasts at me, I snapped out of it and managed to avoid the danger this time. He dashed in and turned the arm of his suit into a blade to try and run me through. He made eye contact with me on his approach though, and I gave him a little taste of having an industrial laser shine in his eye.
He flinched on his way to me and his stab attempt went wide. Being that he was so close, I returned fire with a hard punch while he was wide open.
Hitting a metal suit with my fleshy fist worked just as well as you could imagine. The bones in hand didn't like it one bit. Fortunately, I'd doubled up on my offense. The same punch that punished my hand came with a correspondingly powerful concussive blast behind it, which sent Dr. Van Roekel ass-over-teakettle across the ground.
"Dumbass."
Shut up, Quire. It was half of a good idea. That counted for something, right?
"No. How have you not gotten everyone killed yet if this is how you fight?"
I could have done without the distraction. Just because I'd leveled Van Roekel, didn't mean he was about to give up. I'd hurt him though, which was good on the surface, but he must not have been kidding about the suit upping his aggression, because it seemed to anger him.
He sneered at me from behind his cracked visor as he stood. Shoulder compartments rose from his suit, glowing green and set to fire whatever they contained within, "Another thing I learned from the Purifiers - that fighting you mutants is a magnificent test for my creations. The data I've obtained through my Imperfects will give rise to my ultimate masterpiece."
As if I needed the reminder that part of the hardships we'd dealt with lately happened because of this tool outfitting our genocidal enemies, "Thanks, by the way, for giving me a new reason to want to kick your ass," I told him.
"Do you think you can?" Dr. Van Roekel asked, tauntingly.
I bared my teeth at him, "Allow me to answer with-," I fired at him with both hands. He took off into the air, avoiding my shots and let off energy rockets that screamed through the air after me.
I took off running, looking and firing over my shoulder to pick off the incoming missiles. I got most of them, but two still got close enough to explode near me. When I realized I wasn't going to hit them, I blasted the ground and sent myself flying before I could take the hits.
Better to hurt myself and get away than stay close and let him hurt me worse.
I landed ungracefully in a nearby parking lot. There was a lot of rolling on asphalt and cursing. I could imagine that it wasn't a pretty sight, but I wound up on my feet. That's the moral of the story, everyone. As long as you somehow wind up back on your feet, everything will be alright. Or something like that.
And then, because just shooting stuff at me had either proven ineffective, or must have gotten boring, Van Roekel started chucking motor vehicles at me. I saw the shadow of the first one looming over me, quickly growing bigger, and got out of the way just as a Daewoo Lanos would have turned me into a solar-powered stain on the pavement.
In a stroke of bad luck, between Citi Field and Flushing Bay, there was a goddamn expressway, which meant between that and the parking lot we were in, there was no shortage of his new ammunition of choice. There were still people in the cars he grabbed from the expressway too, so part of the p.r. that was beaten into our heads by the X-Men came up. I couldn't just light one of those cars up like the Fourth of July while Van Roekel was holding it. The last thing we needed was the press that would come with that. This by itself was probably going to be bad enough.
To make matters worse, he was smiling. I could see it. He was enjoying it. For as much as he was a brilliant scientist to create all that he had, it turned out he was just another psychopath. Fine. That meant I could treat him like one.
My next plan of attack worked on the bigger, more thickly armored exosuits the Purifiers used, and when I took a good look at his sleeker suit design, I figured it would here as well.
Dr. Van Roekel flew in front of another car flying down the expressway, snatching it off of the ground as it went to brake and swerve around him. Hefting it over his head, he turned to take aim at me, but I'd already taken aim at him.
From my dominant hand, I flung a light blade his way. Curving through the air like a boomerang, I caught him in the left knee. His lower body was much less armored than his upper half.
Everything seemed to freeze for a moment. I caught the look of shock on his face when he realized what had happened. Then, he looked down at the missing limb, and that was when physics seemed to remember that he was now terribly off-balance with a panel van hanging over his head.
He fell over, the van landed on top of him. It was great. Well, not great for the guy driving the van, probably. But it was better than if Van Roekel had wound up throwing him at me.
I breathed a sigh of relief and took a moment to catch my breath.
"Damn, Marcher. Make a bigger mess next time, why don't you?"
I stopped and looked around at the catastrophe the rather short fight had caused. Craters from Van Roekel's missiles, destroyed streetlights, torn up earth, and of course several cars strewn about. Literally none of that had been my fault. We'd started down by the bay, where there had been no people or automobiles.
Still... being a superhero, I probably needed to get on helping those people quickly.
"Ungh..."
-After I finished the job, of course.
Van Roekel managed to roll the van off of his body. He tried to get back up, the jets on his suit firing up with the green energy source he'd been using. I lifted a hand and shot him directly in the back with an explosive blast, which did wonders when combined with whatever combustion system he had going on with his armor.
"GAH!" Van Roekel exclaimed as he dropped to the ground, his back smoking. The area where his jets had been situated was completely ruined, the protective material of the armor stripped away from the blast to reveal the internal workings and damaged flesh underneath.
I walked him down as he tried to crawl away. He turned and looked over his shoulder, raising a hand to fire a shot of his own at me, so I shot him with another explosive blast again. From the outside looking in, this probably didn't seem very heroic. It seemed more like an execution at this point than the conclusion of a hot-blooded fight. With my luck, someone was recording this too, just like every other incident I ever had in public.
Standing over him, I kept my hand pointed at his face, glowing with the obvious threat of ending his life. The thing was though, I wanted answers, "So, you said already why you went after mutants for your little experiments. Why'd you want Quire? So you could turn him like Jay?"
Van Roekel's breath came out in labored pants and wheezes. It sounded like he was dying, "I need an improved method to control my army."
So, he wanted to exploit Quire's telepathy? Probably to find a way to incorporate it into the way he controlled the rest of his minions. 'Imperfects', I think he called them at one point. What a demeaning way to refer to your own group.
"An army? You had six guys," I said six, because I wasn't counting Jay. We were dragging his ass home and tying him down until we got whatever was in him out of his system, "You couldn't beat us. The X-Men who've been doing this for years would have done you up worse than we did."
At that, he seemed to resign himself to the fact that he was beaten. The power supply to his suit had stopped working, as the green glow it previously had to it vanished, "I was the last hope for my people. All of my plans... everything I have done..." He trailed off weakly, "Your race has doomed mine, Earthling. I hope you can live with that."
He went limp, and I stayed in place for a moment. When he didn't move again, I lowered my hand and walked away. There was no need to fire another shot. He was finished.
In the interim, Pixie, Wing, and Mercury turned up, flying into the scene. Wing set Mercury down while Pixie darted over to me, "Jesus, Bel! What happened? Are you okay?" She asked me.
I waved off her concern and pointed to the wrecked vehicles around us, "Help them. Make sure they're good, guys. I'm gonna go get Quire," I said, walking off to the waterfront where I'd left the container.
It didn't take long to find it. All I had to do was follow the trail of mayhem Van Roekel and I had created back to where it had started. The container hadn't budged from where I'd stuck it upright in the dirt. As I approached, I did a little spin, skip, and a hop as a victory dance, just to be a jerk. I don't know why. It wasn't like had eyes. Did he even need eyes?
"So, that's done," I said, "I'm gonna call Armor and Hellion to see if they beat the other bad guys, then we're gonna wrap this whole thing up."
I had no idea why I was talking to him. Maybe because I needed to talk to someone after what had just happened. Pixie had tried to dote on me, but it was still a little too weird for me to be around her. It was fine when we were working together in the heat of danger, but when things slowed down, I couldn't ignore the awkwardness.
A few steps away, Quire's voice in my head brought me to a stop.
"Before that, Marcher. Want to see something cool?"
There was something ominous in the way he posed that question, "...No."
"Too bad, liar."
With that, Quire's container burst apart entirely, sending shards of metal and glass-like material flying. I covered up, prepared to be bombarded with the shrapnel, only for every single piece to stop in mid-air. Some, inches away from tearing me to shreds. This was what I saw when I opened my eyes, as well as the green ooze that comprised what had been Quentin's body taking corporeal form.
He was a skinny kid my age with brown hair in a swept back mohawk. He had little muscle definition, and I could tell because homeboy did not reform his body with any clothes on. I'm talking naked, next to a body of water in the middle of winter. It didn't seem to bother him though. It bothered him less than his hair color, it seemed.
"Tch," He let some of his hair dangle over his eyes before sweeping it back with his hands, "Gotta get this shit dyed A.S.A.P."
Hearing the voice that had been in my head for so long in person was more jarring than I thought it would be. As if he sensed my thoughts (because; fucking telepath), Quire turned his beady eyes to me, a smirk plastered on his face.
"Well-well-well," He drawled, "We finally meet in the flesh, Marcher."
"Okay, what the fuck?" I shouted aloud, "Could you have done that this whole time? Put yourself back together?"
"Yeah," Quire admitted shamelessly, "Since a little while after you showed up, actually."
I wanted to pull my own hair out from frustration. So much of this could have been prevented if this Quire had just done something back when things went sideways at the school. Clearly, he was capable of it, "Why didn't you stop Jay from taking you from Beast's lab then? Or after he got you to the ship? I know you knew what that Van Roekel guy was going to do with you."
Quire started cackling, "I was counting on it," He said, "Imagine the look on his face when he tried to crack me open and found himself dealing with an Omega-level psychic. Would've been priceless."
This little troll...
I was about to snap at him about being a moron, but was succinctly reminded of the deadly shards of material only being kept from flying into my face by the grace of absurd telekinetic control, "Omega-level?"
That could be a big problem.
"That's right, crotch stain," Quire's voice lowered, and I could feel the malice in his tone, "Thought you were pretty badass, didn't you? Leading your own team of losers. But Kid Omega is the 'Face That Runs The Place'. I like that. I think I'll keep it for myself."
I felt myself swallow a massive lump down my throat, "Omega-level doesn't mean you're the strongest. Just that you have the potential to be," My words probably didn't sound as confident as I wanted them to, but it was true.
Quire rolled his eyes at my attempt to explain away the potential threat he posed, "Yeah, blah-blah-blah. I took the same classes you did. I know what it means. But if you think I can't live up to that potential..." It may have been the way the moonlight hit him, but there was a dangerous shimmer in his eyes, "...Why don't you blast me in the face the way you do everybody else you don't like?"
My fingers twitched at my side. It felt like an old western, with two outlaws waiting on the high noon showdown.
"Do it. You can take him."
The words sounded in my head, and despite sounding like my voice, I wasn't quite that dumb and confrontational. There wouldn't have been much of a doubt in who would have won a quickdraw challenge here. After all, even if Quire didn't have a defense prepared to stop my shot, he had dozens of deadly little helpers ready to skewer me in an instant.
I knew this already. But the sheer fact that he put me on the spot made me want to try it anyway. And I knew that he knew it too. Actually, him trying to nudge me that way with his telepathy managed to push me further away from a rash decision.
"...Because I'm on the clock," I eventually said. While I was stupid enough to try someone as powerful as Quire who called me on it, I wouldn't do it while I was supposed to be responsible for other people, "If you ask again later, I might just take you up on it."
Oh yeah. Smooth as Egyptian whiskey.
"Whatever, Marcher," Quire scoffed before pointing to his own head, "Just remember, your hands ain't faster than my brain. Ten million thoughts per second. I'll see you coming in slow motion... whenever you decide to try me."
With that, he let the deadly debris fall harmlessly to the ground, including the stuff that had been poised to turn me to Swiss cheese. When he took off flying away from me, I couldn't help but release a breath of relief I'd been holding on to.
I wasn't worth it. At least, not right then, I wasn't. I could literally live with that.
XxX
Everything after the fight and Quire putting himself back together was pretty standard. S.H.I.E.L.D. showed up late to the party to take control of the scene. Seeing as how aliens and modified superhumans were involved, S.W.O.R.D. also joined the party. Hellion was able to get us the hell out of there before we got swept up in it. Mister Summers and Miss Frost could handle the crap that came with that in the aftermath.
The rest of the team was able to take out Van Roekel's Imperfects. Hellion apparently took great pleasure in smacking Jay around, which was fair. Even going back a while, the stuff Jay did led to one of his friends and Hellion squad members being killed, and another being pulled out of Xavier's by his parents. We dragged him back in one piece. Whatever was done with him from there? I didn't care anymore. My job was done.
But Quire though...
In the day after we returned to the school, I hadn't seen him, but word through the halls was that he was somewhere around. When I asked Dr. McCoy about him, he frowned and said to me:
"Part of me is glad the boy is alright. But another part of me is afraid that things were safer with him in the containment unit."
If the guy was really that much trouble, and that kind of a powerhouse to back it up, it would be annoying as hell to deal with him. But thinking about it made my head hurt, even a day later. Whatever. We had actual staff for this. Why did it have to be my problem? I still had classes to worry about.
Speaking of which, I found myself walking outside in the cold between classes with Wing and Hellion. The former was still getting used to the wildness that came with our new extracurricular activities.
"So... all of this is X-Men stuff," Wing said, floating through the air, relaxing as though he were propped up in his bed, "I can see why you and Armor said it wasn't all I thought it was cracked up to be, Bel."
Hellion let out a huff, his breath visible in the frigid air, "You should have figured that out after the attack on the school and the thing in Limbo," He muttered.
Wing ignored him and continued venting about current events, "And now Quire's back? You know he tried to take over the school and start a race riot before, right?" He flipped around in the air and lowered himself closer to my side, "Dude, I'll never be safe with my thoughts again," He whispered poorly.
I moved Wing out of my personal space and kept walking, "Unless he's actively trying to read you, or you're five feet away from him, I wouldn't worry about it," I replied, "We hang out with Ruth and train with the Cuckoos, Wing. I figured you'd be used to telepaths by now."
Hellion nodded at my point, but offered his own thoughts, "Yeah, but last time I checked, Blindfold isn't hostile. Quire is a major shitbag. No idea what the teachers are thinking letting him stay around here."
The problem was though, if Quire took off on some shitheel world tour and caused some big dust-up somewhere that someone else had to deal with, it would fall back into our laps anyway. All mutant b.s. tended to have an effect of trickling down to the school. Probably because we were the most public mutant gathering in existence since Genosha was annihilated, thus making us the next easiest target to vilify.
Antagonizing a smarmy teenager with more power than he needed seemed like a real recipe for disaster. If they were playing things conservatively until they could figure out what to really do, I couldn't really blame them.
"They're probably thinking that either way, if he starts something it'll be the X-Men's problem anyway," I said, "Might as well keep him in the fold so only our stuff gets destroyed."
In response, Hellion gestured to the school grounds around us, "Yeah, but if he starts something here he might almost destroy the school again," Wing's body language read of concern and agreement.
"Not helping, Hellion," I sighed, before addressing my friend, "I don't know, Wingman. We'll handle this stuff as it comes up, and that's if we even have to. I'm more concerned with trying to keep the team alive."
Hellion shrugged his shoulders, hands shoved into his coat pockets, "The more you do it, the easier it should get. Everyone else is getting used to listening to you too," Both Wing and I turned to give him pointed looks. He self-consciously folded in on himself, "Yes, that includes me, asshole. After the last few crapstorms we've navigated through, I think you're earning some of that authority you've been ordained with."
"'Ordained', you say," I repeated with a grin. Wing snickered at my side.
Hellion rolled his eyes at our unsaid questioning of his scholastic intellect, "Yeah, I know what words mean, Marcher. Unless you're saying you actually volunteered to head this team up."
At that, I winced. In the end, it wasn't forced on me, but I hadn't been particularly keen on doing it at first, "Not a chance. Dealing with you people is like herding cats through a minefield."
I still had misgivings about how I was doing as leader. But we were all still alive. Plus, people kept reassuring me that I was doing a good enough job, and if enough people had the same opinion on your performance, there had to be something to it.
XxX
Later in the day, it was time to train on individual skills, which meant we all split off to work with a senior X-Men member that had a better idea of what to do with our particular powers.
I wound up sitting in with Cyclops, which seemed to happen a lot, actually. I was joined by Match, Surge, Wind Dancer, Dust, and Armor. All of us had powers that we could project at multiple ranges... except for Armor. She was strictly close-range. But her only other option was to sit in with 'tanks' like Rockslide, and she didn't want any part of that, so she went with us.
It wasn't a combat class. We'd learned enough about fighting, and had to deal with it enough that it served to practice without trying to kill each other for once. Everyone had to take turns describing and demonstrating more uses for their powers than just hurling them in people's faces to win a fight.
Damn. That tended to be my go-to use for my powers.
When we finally got to my turn, I hesitated to come up with anything more extensive than just making myself glow. And Cyclops didn't go easy on me. We kept it on me until I came up with something to share, even opening up the floor to others to try and contribute solutions.
That day, I learned that my friends are all as dumb as I am.
"You control light, don't you?" Surge said, sitting on the floor with the others while I stood at the head of the room with Cyclops, "Doesn't that meant you should be able to turn invisible and stuff?"
Uh, no. That wasn't how it worked. I mean, I could kind of bend light, but people could still see me if they were alert enough. Besides, it only worked at all when I wasn't moving.
"I don't control anything. I absorb light and project it," I told her. It wasn't like I was light personified, or the essence of light. I was a dude that could toss light around, "I'm like an overgrown lamp with a solar battery."
Cyclops had to block a smile from the backhanded way I described myself, covering for it by clearing his throat, "You're skilled with the way you use your powers, but eventually you may have need for more than just brute force."
Armor, never missing an opportunity to good-naturedly give me the business, followed up, "Yeah, blowing everything up can only be so useful," She taunted. I flipped her off, keeping my hand below my waist so Cyclops didn't see it. I was pretty sure he still did though, because he nudged me.
True enough though, violence could only go so far. It wasn't like I could fight with everything to solve my problems, "Well... there are a few things I've been screwing around with."
Cyclops seemed interested in what I had up my sleeve, "Please. Share with the class, Bellamy."
I took the cue to begin focusing my energy to my eyes. Given what I could do with the laser pointer trick, one would figure that the more light I pushed to my eyes, the more destructive it would be, right? Not in this case.
Match was the first to comment on whatever change occurred when I did this, "Whoa. What's with your eyes, man?"
Whatever he saw, I had no idea. I imagined that it made my eyes look like headlights, but again, it wasn't like I could check for myself, or that I cared. The only thing that really mattered to me was what this change actually accomplished.
"I'm looking through stuff," I explained, looking around the room. I adjusted my output to see through different things, "Takes more power to see through denser objects."
"Jeez," Surge remarked, "You have x-ray eyes. Why has this never come up before?"
"Four reasons," I said, starting to list things off on my fingers, "One? Because it hasn't been that long since I figured it out. Two? Because holding it fucking hurts my eyes. Three? Because when would I have ever used it in the field before now?"
"-On the ship when we were looking for Quire," Armor aptly pointed out.
I paused to glare at her, and had nothing to respond with, because damn it, she had a point.
"...Five reasons then," I amended, adding another number for the sake of accuracy, "Four; because I forgot I could do it."
"-And you could use it to, like, look through girl's clothes and stuff," Armor finished with a suspicious glance. Her hands subtly moved up to try and cover herself up.
Armor's stupid use for a new wrinkle to my powers actually led to part of my explanation of why it never came up in front of others until then.
"Reason number five," I started, slightly annoyed, "All light is radiation. How much radiation do you think it takes to look through stuff? A lot," I deadpanned, "I really don't feel like staring cancer into my classmates just to be nosy all the time."
"Anything else?" Cyclops asked.
I turned my super eyes off and rubbed them, trying to readjust to standard sight, "Uh... I can see in infrared too. It hurts less, and it's less radiation, but it just means I can see in the dark."
Not the most impressive aspect of my powers, but the point had been to demonstrate a use that wasn't overtly violent. It actually wound up being a pretty fun session, watching everyone screw around with their powers in ways they wouldn't have tried if someone were actively trying to kill us.
When time was up and our little session was over, everyone started to leave, but Cyclops kept me back, "Just a moment, if you don't mind, Bellamy."
If I didn't mind? It didn't matter if I minded or not. The dude gave me my marching orders in the X-Men and had a hand in running the day-to-day for the school. If he wanted to stop me to talk, we were having a conversation.
I hung back and shut the door, just in case sensitive information was passed between us. I couldn't get a feel for how serious things were from his tone and body language though, "What's up?"
Not bothering with small talk, he cut right to the heart of the matter, "What do you think about our telepath situation?"
As far as I'd been aware, the Cuckoos had been doing a good enough job, both when working support from Cerebra, and in the field against the Imperfects.
"I didn't realize there was one," I replied.
Cyclops shrugged, "There isn't. I was just trying to prime you for a suggestion," He said before hesitating momentarily, "...Do you think it's possible to recruit Quentin for your team?"
"Are you out of your fucking mind?" I replied out of reflex. I was prepared to apologize when I confirmed to myself that I was entirely justified in my response, "He's not going to listen to me, and I'm not sure I could kick his ass into line."
Belligerent wasn't a strong enough word to describe what I felt Quire would be if he were placed under my command. I'd heard some terrible ideas lately, and had plenty of my own, but this took the cake for recent ill-conceived aims.
Working with Ruth and the Cuckoos had given me a pretty good leg up as far as my telepathic defenses went, and from dealing with Julian I was aware of how to fight telekinetics, but I had never fought someone capable of both at once. And unlike the others, if the shit went down with Quire and I had to go head-to-head with him, it wouldn't be an exercise or a schoolyard tiff. There was no doubt in my mind that we would be playing for keeps, so to speak.
In fact, why did we even need him on the team anyway? The Cuckoos were doing a fine job as the designated telepaths on the team as far as I was concerned.
"What would he even bring to the table?" I asked Cyclops aloud, "We're just starting to get a feel for this whole team thing. Do you really want to throw a spanner in the works now?"
Not to mention, there were still other existing personnel problems abound to deal with that didn't involve that guy.
We didn't need him. I knew we didn't need him. More importantly, Cyclops knew we didn't need him, and he had from the beginning, "To be honest, it's more of a matter of how the team could help rehabilitate him."
I knew there were high expectations for me from both Mister Summers and Miss Frost, but I wasn't a miracle worker. Getting Laura to play ball with the Paladins, or finding a way to arrange the roster so that Julian and Noriko didn't attempt to murder each other on my watch wasn't the same thing as getting Quentin Quire to be a good boy.
Also, even if I could do something, that didn't mean I wanted to, or that I was going to. It seemed like a lot of work for someone that I didn't even like. I'd had enough of that dealing with Jay Guthrie, thank you.
"Last time I checked; he didn't seem to want to buddy up to anybody," I said, trying to be as cagey as possible in the hopes that Cyclops didn't push the issue.
"Maybe not," Cyclops admitted, "But he's still here when he could have already flown the coop. Emma believes he doesn't feel he has anywhere he can go."
And there it was. Maybe I was developing telepathy, because damned if I didn't see that one coming from a mile away.
"My heart bleeds for him," I muttered under my breath before speaking up, "Look, you said I had a say on who could and couldn't be on the team roster. Well, I'm saying 'no way' for this one. You'd be better off waiting for Jay to recover, then throwing him on the team than Quire," I paused as I took stock of how my words could have been construed, "...I'm vetoing that too by the way, if it was ever on the table."
"It wasn't," Cyclops assured me, seemingly amused if the slight quirk of his mouth was anything to go by.
My body relaxed. I hadn't even realized I'd tensed up at some point in the conversation. Well, at least there was one thing I didn't have to throw a shit fit about.
If he really wanted Quire groomed for a team, he could do it himself, or stick Quire with someone who could actually take on the monumental task of keeping him on a leash. The fact of the matter was that I was not the man for the job, nor was my team the place for such a thing. No seeds of discord would be planted in my already chaotic garden of junior X-Men.
Thankfully, shooting down the guy in charge didn't seem to generate any negativity my way.
"No problem then. Just considering my options," Cyclops said, shaking off my refusal gracefully, "Dr. Garrison suggested ingratiating Quentin back into things at school after he reaches a certain point in his therapy with him."
Therapy? They had Quire doing therapy? How the fuck was that going to work? Quire was a telepath. He could get into Dr. Garrison's head with his powers better than Dr. Garrison could with his shrink techniques. Quire would probably get annoyed and turn his brain to mush if he got too bored.
Whatever. There weren't enough hours in the day to put out all of the fires that popped up around there, even if I was an insomniac. Not everything in this goddamn school had to be my problem.
...Yeah right.
Laura Kinney - "Observing Him"
"What do you like to do?"
I remember, back before we got to know each other, when I had first joined the Paladins. It was one of the first personal questions Bellamy ever asked me. I didn't answer at the time. There were many questions he asked back then that I either had no answer for or chose to keep to myself.
"Come on," I remember him looking down into my face, a dull, flat expression on his face, only betrayed by the mirth in his eyes. He was picking on me, "You know, if we're going to be hanging out, it would help if I knew what your hobbies were."
He persisted, but he didn't push. He never did when it came to things like that. He always reasoned that for mundane matters involving me, he would either figure it out eventually for himself or I would trust him enough one day to reveal the information on my own.
He never did figure this out for himself, and while I do trust him enough now to share just about anything with him, I will continue to keep it to myself.
I like watching people; observing others.
At first, I did it in order to learn. Years ago, during my time with the Facility, it was expected of me to blend in around my targets until it was time to carry out my missions. How else could I do that without knowing what people were like? So, I learned to watch and study - for the purposes of imitating them well enough to to remain as inconspicuous as possible.
Despite this, I never had any prolonged contact. I didn't understand them. Even now, I oftentimes don't.
Now, I find myself watching Bellamy more than anyone else. And I find that despite this, I don't understand him either.
His care and understanding is one of his most attractive traits. He goes out of his way to learn the point of view of others, and tries to do so in order to better understand the people around him. This serves to bring people closer to him, myself included. However, he buries this part of himself underneath an irritable and contentious demeanor that oftentime contradicts his efforts.
He works extremely hard, shows dedication to his chosen tasks, and has an abundance of confidence in himself and what he is capable of, yet no result he ever achieves is satisfactory for him.
He chastises his friends and loved ones who dare to risk their health and well-being for his sake, yet he is hypocritically willing to throw himself into the teeth of any threat and suffer even for their momentary safety.
He encourages his loved ones to see the value in themselves, yet refuses to see the value he himself possesses in the eyes of others.
These are just a few of the conflicts I have found from my time around him.
Bellamy says that he is a 'simple guy', but I disagree. He is... confusing. Vexing. Maybe that is why I have always found him more interesting to watch than others.
My best opportunities to observe him come during the night, when we spend them together. Then, I can take in and appreciate everything. His appearance, his scent, the way he moves, the sound of his voice, the rhythm of his breathing, the strength of his heartbeat... all of it.
He never sleeps. He can't sleep. Still, he'll lie with me until he thinks I'm asleep. Sometimes he'll get up and either work at his desk or leave to train. Sometimes he'll stay next to me all night, staying as still and as silent as possible so as not to disturb me. Those are the times I feel the worst about using subterfuge to watch him.
It's not fair to deceive Bellamy like that simply so I can observe him... even if I do enjoy it.
But I know that even if he discovered me, he wouldn't be angry. He would comment on how odd it was, he would call me strange, but he would smile at me the entire time. There would be no malice in his tone, and that is something I still find myself getting used to.
I am fairly new to being treated well by others. When I make mistakes here, no one hurts me. I am not mistreated by others in positions of authority over me. Intead of being seen as a tool, I am seen as a person. It is just unfortunate that I am still trying to learn what that means.
Thankfully, however, I have found someone more than willing to put up with me while I do.
Megan Gwynn - "No Take-Backs"
So... I broke up with a boy that I really, really liked.
"When he realizes he's wrong, he'll fall all over himself to make it up to you," I remembered my roommate Hope saying during that weekend. The weekend where I did the stupid thing that I did, "Just give it some time. Bellamy's a pretty stubborn guy, so maybe a few weeks?"
I don't even know why I listened to her!
It wasn't like she even had any experience! She treated the whole thing like the drama in some rom-com! My five whole months of having a boyfriend (two of which were spent a continent away from him) were more than her literal never!
Yeah, Bel is a stubborn guy. But aside from that, Hope was totally off on the kind of person he is! He'd own up to stuff when he messed up, but if he didn't think he was in the wrong or couldn't be convinced that he was, he would never apologize.
And the worst part is, he wasn't wrong...
People kept talking, whispering about how close he and Laura were when I was around. They'd talk about it to me. I just couldn't take it. I thought I could, but I couldn't. He and Laura did spend a lot of time together, even if they were on a squad. And they did up and disappear without telling anyone. They did spend the summer together - at his house! She met his family before I did! I mean, what the heck, Bel?
But he and I hadn't been dating for too long at that point. He called me all the time to check in on me when I was home in Wales. I KNEW he hadn't cheated on me. I KNEW he wasn't getting close to Laura to replace me. I'd told him as much to his face! I'd laughed about it! That just isn't the kind of boy he is. He's way too loyal to do anything like that.
In the end, it didn't stop me from letting it get to me.
Bel is also way loyal to his friends. Not just to help them out of a pinch, but to let anyone badmouth them or spread lies. He dealt with people talking about him as well as he could have. The thing he took hardest about all of the rumors was that Laura had gotten caught up in them. Seriously. Between my breaking up with him, and all of the talk, the only way he could have been pushed to Laura faster was if a mutant at the school had Cupid powers and shot him in the butt with one of his arrows.
So, that was it. I screwed up, and he got with someone else. That's how the story ends, right?
But does it really have to?
I mean, Bel doesn't hate me. He definitely hates my friends from the way he and Hope look like they want to kill each other whenever they're in the same room, but I've never felt anything negative from him towards me.
He tries to talk to me like I didn't hurt him. He tries to be fair and treat me like just another member of the team. He fought Evil Illyana in Limbo for me. He still cared.
I've felt a lot of weirdness from him, yes. But I'm pretty sure I'm just as much to blame for that too. I don't even know what I want to say when he's around. And given that he's running the new team of students-turned-X-Men, he's around a LOT. It's so weird when he's explaining stuff to the team, or briefing us, because he's all serious and leader-y, and I just keep picturing him as a post-rut body pillow while he's talking.
I wanted to grab him after practice, just to have a chat and tell him how I felt. But when I went to get him before we could all hit the showers, I... just froze. I thought I was ready, but I still didn't have any idea what I wanted to say to him. I was at a loss for words. Me, at a loss for words! That never happened!
When I got out of the girl's locker room, I saw Bel still hanging around with Eddie, probably waiting for Laura and Hisako to finish changing so they could all hang out. I couldn't go over to him. It felt like the old days when I was too scared to chat him up on my own, just for different reasons now.
Noriko caught me moping my way to the dining hall and called me out on it.
"You still want Bellamy, don't you?" She asked, blunt as a sledgehammer.
"S-So what if I do?" I felt my face get red and my wings flicker. Why was it so embarrassing? I was an X-Man now. X-Men didn't get embarassed, "Is that such a bad thing?"
I tried to sound tough and confident. Clearly, it didn't work at all.
Noriko held back a laugh, showing I must have been more amusing than anything else, "Speaking objectively, because I like both of you guys, yes," She said, the smile slowly falling from her face, "You screwed him over, Pixie."
Hearing it come from someone else hurt, even after a month had passed. Between the friends and gossipers who thought I did the right thing, and the others who just kept out of our business, it was the first time that someone else had actually said it to me. Which meant it was the first time I had the chance to actually say it out loud.
I could feel a lump in my throat that hadn't been there a second ago, "I know."
It was all I could say. I could have blamed Hope, or Jessie, or Roxy. They egged me on once the rumors got hot and had been there when Bel had come to talk to me. I could have blamed Laura, because she had to have been waiting in the wings to scoop him up the first chance she got. I could have blamed Bel himself. But it wasn't them. It was me. In the end, I did it. I was the one who broke it off.
Nori nodded, but she didn't seem happy about it, "And Hisako knows," She continued, "She gives the guy hell, because it's funny. But she's got Bel's back, and there's no way she'll let you get anywhere near as close to him as you were."
"Even if I said I was sorry?" Stupid lump. Now it was making me sound funny, "I really would mean it, you know."
Nori reached out and put a hand on my shoulder. The gauntlet she wore to control her powers made it heavy, "Just because you apologize doesn't mean someone has to forgive you," She said, "Bel probably will, but I swear that guy kinda hates himself. The Paladins love him though, so they won't."
No way they would. Even Eddie, the friendliest guy ever. He didn't speak to me unless he had to work with me at practice. If he was like that with me, the others definitely weren't fans. And Laura was dating him now. How territorial would she be if she thought I was moving in on Bellamy again? I didn't really want to find out how much Wolverine she had in her.
I felt stuck. Like I was an observer in my own life. It was terrible.
I tried to blink back tears. I'd already cried enough. I didn't want to again. Definitely not in front of someone who wasn't involved, "I don't know what to do..."
"Sometimes there's nothing you can do," Nori said. She could tell that I was a few moments away from losing it, "Look, I'm not saying this is one of those times, but it might be. You can't just make it all go away."
"...Right," I nodded, and Nori thankfully left. I started to fly away, not wanting to stay on the ground where people could see me all teary-eyed.
She was right. What was done was done. I dumped Bellamy based off of hearsay. I took gossip over his word, and was talked into playing games to try and fix my problems. Maybe that was why it was so hard to just talk to him? Because I knew that apologizing wouldn't erase what happened, and what he and someone else had to deal with because of it.
Even if I couldn't get what I wanted, if I wanted to make things better, that was the first thing I had to accept.
"No take-backs."
And that's the chapter, guys.
So, a bit of housekeeping to take care of real quick.
Consider the stuff you saw at the end a bit of a test. I'm going to start trying to introduce other characters' POVs at certain times through these shorts at the ends of chapters. The subjects won't just be about Bellamy. They'll be about all sorts of things, and will hopefully expand on what has been/will be established in the story.
By now, I'm pretty sure you guys have a good handle on the way Bellamy thinks. You've gotten 41 chapters of it, after all. But a lot of you came here from my other stories, and may not have a whole lot of experience with the X-Men, especially the younger characters I've been using to flesh out this story. These might help you understand who they are, at least from what I've interpreted from reading comics about them for years.
I debated doing this for a while and finally just decided to go for it. Maybe they'll work, and most readers will find it to be a treat. Maybe they won't, and most of you will just feel like it gets in the way. Only time will tell. You could always just ignore them too.
Either way, I'm really only doing this in the first place to entertain myself in my free time, so everything I put forth on this site is an attempt to do just that.
Regardless, I hope you all enjoyed, and I'll catch you all around. Until the next time.
Kenchi out.