Chapter 56: Stuff of Villains
After Scott had gotten shot and both the principal and several students were sent to jail, pretty much everyone started to change their tunes towards the mutants, teacher, students or otherwise… Well, most of them. Those who still refused to listen just gave them a hard time away from the prying eyes of the new principal: Agent Phil Coulson.
After he had taken his place as the new principal, Phil had taken it upon himself to curb the racism drastically. He new there were those who were too dumb to listen to reason, and he was trying to do what he could to weed them out however he could. The Shirakumo twins along with various others gave him their aid should he need it.
All in all, the school had become a stable place. However, one of his informants, Gavin Shirakumo, had recently become very erratic, ill tempered and would constantly get angry at every little thing. It was honestly starting to become a problem.
Right now, he had the pseudo vampire in his office, as well as Scott. The incident in question that just occurred was Gavin decking the shaded teen in the face in front of several other people.
"Gavin, this behavior you've been displaying is becoming a problem. If you can at the very least tell us what's causing it, we may be able to help." The SHIELD agent/principal told him.
"You wouldn't understand…. None of you would." The boy sighed before growling the last part. Scott continued to hold an ice pack to his jaw and looked at him.
"You don't know that." Scott told him. Gavin let out a shaky sigh.
"... Fine. There's this… Girl I really like. She's pining for this dense asshole who won't give her a second look because he's pining for this other girl I know and I've been helping the girl I like get with him… Only for him to repeatedly and blatantly ignore or doesn't take the damn hint. And she's still hung up on him, and it just makes me so… ANGRY!" He snapped before slamming his fist on the arm of the chair he was in.
"And… This is causing you to lash out?" Scott asked as he felt his jaw throb slightly, making him wince.
"What was your first clue, Sherlock?" Gavin hissed.
"Does this girl have a name?" Coulson asked.
"Yeah, it's Anna, Anna Marie." The boy told him.
"Oh… Well, I hope she puts two and two together soon. For your sake, and her own." Phil nodded slowly.
"Yeah, me too." Scott nodded, causing Gavin to give him a sideways glare that probably would have killed Medusa if she were there.
'This prick!' He thought as he sighed and got up. "I'm gonna go to class. See you guys later." He told them as he left.
(Elsewhere)
Laura was currently trying to get her stuff for class while talking to Romni Ann, when someone said something from behind the door of the top locker.
"I was wondering when I'd find you." A familiar voice said, causing a startled Laura to close the door, revealing it to be Peter.
"Peter!" The girl said in surprise before hugging him tightly.
"Surprise, Laura." He commented with a grin as he hugged her back.
"Who's this, your boyfriend?" Ronni Ann joked with a smirk.
"W-wha-?! No! It's not l-like that!" The mini Wolverine stammered with a blush, which was mirrored by her web slinging friend.
"It's uh… Kind of a long story." Peter said nervously as the two thought back to when they first met.
(Flashback)
Peter was standing at the edge of the Brooklyn bridge, the same spot of one of his greatest failures: the day he wasn't able to save the girl he loved, Gwen Stacy. It had pretty much been a rough year for him. He had been rejected by the girl he had originally started dating, Mary Jane Watson for reasons he still wasn't sure about, only for her to start dating his best friend Harry Osborn a few weeks later. And then after moving on and dating Gwen for four months, she died from whiplash when he tried to save her from falling off this very bridge after she was thrown by his nemesis, Green Goblin.
Now he was standing there and looking down at the water after receiving another set of bad news: his Aunt May had cancer, and there wasn't anything he could do to help her. His reflection looked back up at him, showing that he was only fourteen, maybe fifteen, with brown hair and brown eyes, he also had an uncanny resemblance to the child actor, Tom Holland.
Peter started to feel the tears well as he started to cry, he just felt so helpless, and alone, and worthless, he felt lost, and in a set of mind that was not his own, he was about to end it all when...
"NO!" A female voice screamed before he was suddenly dragged away from the edge. The boy turned to whoever dragged him away and saw it was the girl he saw before, Laura, and she had just slung him away from the edge of the bridge like a rag doll.
"What are you doing?!" Peter snapped at her.
"What am I doing? What are YOU doing?! What could possibly possess you to commit suicide that I don't know?!" The green eyed girl growled furiously.
"I'm sick and tired of the people I care about always getting hurt, sick or killed, I'm tired of not being able to protect them, being the reason they get hurt! They're better off if I'm not-" he started to yell back before…
*SMACK!*
He was interrupted by a slap to the face courtesy of the daughter of the Wolverine in front of him. He touched his stinging cheek as Laura glared at him angrily.
"Who the hell told you that you're the reason everyone close to you is getting hurt?! NO ONE! None of that was your fault, and it never will be! Times have been rough, I know, but none of it is a cause for fucking suicide!" She ranted.
"Sometimes bad things just happen, Spider-Man, you can't just go internalizing every little misfortune or finding a reason for every slight. Because at the end of the day, things just happen. Not everything is always your fault, trust me, I know." She added, which caused the boy to look at her in shock, how did she know his secret identity?!
"H-how did you-? He tried to ask before Laura pointed at her nose.
"Enhanced sense of smell. Wasn't too hard to figure out." She said. "So who are you anyway, besides Spider Man?" She asked.
"Uh, P-Peter Parker…" He told her. 'Wow, is my mind playing tricks on me or does her nose wiggle in the cutest way when she's mad?... Why did I just think that?' The boy thought as his thoughts started to drift away from jumping off the bridge.
"Well, let's go do something to try and take our mind off what almost happened then. Let's go, Peter." The girl said as she started walking away from the bridge while also dragging him away.
"Okayyyy-Whoa!" He yelped as he was dragged.
(Flashback End)
"Yeah… crazy Thursday." The boy chuckled awkwardly.
"So what brings you here?" Ronni Ann asked.
"Oh uh, I recently transferred here with a few of my friends after Agent Coulson became the principal, something about needing some young minds to help him make things better around here." The boy said nervously, not wanting to reveal that it was because he and his friends Danny Rand, Luke Cage, Sam Alexander and Ava Ayala worked for SHIELD as superheroes.
"Oh, well he's not wrong. Things have been getting really better here as of late." The girl nodded.
"Except with Gavin, he's been getting really angry a lot recently." Laura said as they entered their next class.
"How come?" Peter asked.
"Isn't it obvious? He's getting sick and tired of having to friend zone himself with our friend Rogue, I mean, he's head over heels in love with her." The girl told him, which surprised the pseudo vampire's old fencing partner.
"Wait, he's friend zoning himself? What is he thinking?! He's just going to suffer more if he doesn't take initiative!" She said in disbelief.
"He wants her to be happy and apparently Rogue was really into our other friend Scott Summers, so he was friend zoning himself to get her together with him." Laura explained as they sat down. "A truly selfless gesture, but also one that came back to bite him in the ass when Scott showed no interest in Rogue and Gavin thinking that she'll never like him the way he does her."
Ronni Ann frowned at what she heard. Gavn was suffering on an emotional level because of his own actions and he didn't seem to care, or didn't notice it at all. She was starting to grow concerned for her old fencing partner.
"Let's hope things get cleared up soon…" She said as class began.
(Elsewhere)
Lance was walking to the gym to meet Kitty for PE, when he noticed one of Magneto's goons, Gambit, was waiting for him as he leaned up against a tree. The next thing Lance knew, the southern gambler stopped him.
"What do you want?" He asked irritably.
"Nutin' much, just a little favor." The Cajun shrugged while sneakily snatching Lance's wallet without him noticing.
"That being what, exactly?" The walking Richter Scale questioned.
"Magneto wants you to help the Brotherhood bust out your old friend, Pietro. Apparently he's been taken by the marines after his sister attacked him." Gambit explained as he flipped through the wallet. "And believe me, you do not wanna turn the man down." He added as he took out a photo of Kitty and looked at it.
"Please. I'm not interested in helping him." Lance said dismissively. But he froze when he saw his wallet and the picture and the man's hand.
"This ya girl?" The thief asked, showing him the picture. Lance growled as he snatched the wallet but was unable to get the picture.
"Yeah, what about it?" Lance asked.
"Well, it'd sure be a shame if somethin' were to happen to her." The man said as he used his powers to explosively charge the picture. "Let me put it this way: You don't help us? Ya girlfriend's toast." He said as he flicked the picture to the side, causing it to explode.
Lance growled angrily at this guy's nerve to threaten his crush. He wanted to bury him in rubble, but if he didn't do what he was told to do, Kitty was a goner.
"... Fine! But I'm not doing this for Pietro!" He growled.
"Fine by me. Besides, I respect a man who does things for those he cares about. Shows honor, somethin' I'm familiar with." Gambit shrugged. "Meet me at the Brotherhood place after school, then we'll talk."
Lance snarled. "Fine." He said as Gambit walked away.
(Elsewhere)
Gambit was walking across the school when he saw Rogue and Evan being harassed by two jugheads who had them cornered away where they wouldn't be spotted by Gavin or anyone else.
"Let me guess: You think we should be scared of you, right?" One of them asked stupidly.
"Well, if you want to that's fine." Evan shrugged. "But it's our other friends you should be worried about."
"Please. They can't help you here." The other one scoffed.
"Then I guess we'll have to make you back off!" Evan said as he deployed his spikes. Naturally the two dunces ran off while Evan struggled to get his spikes back in, before they bumped into Gambit.
"Things really are different around these parts, aren't they?" He mused with a smirk. Though as the two ran away scared from him, Rogue saw him leave.
(Later)
Rogue immediately went to find someone to tell them about what she just saw, when she bumped into Kitty as she watched Lance drive off after apparently blowing off their last class of the day.
"Oh boy… This is gonna be trouble, Ah know it." She groaned. "Kitty, what's up with Lance?" She asked as she ran up to her roommate.
"I don't know, I was just about to go to our last class with him and then he just, like, blew me off out of nowhere." The phasing girl huffed before her expression turned worried. "I hope he's not going to do anything stupid."
"Um, have you met Lance before?" Rogue asked with a raised eyebrow. "Anyway, Ah just saw one of Magneto's goons earlier, and now with Lance running off I'm getting a sneaking suspicion that he may be forcing Lance to help him with something."
"... You thinking what I'm thinking?" Kitty smirked.
"Yep, Ah think it's high time the Bayville Sirens got back to work." The Southern Belle said. "Come on, let's go get the girls, and let's bring Laura too. She'll love this."
(Elsewhere)
Lance was in his X-Men costume with Blob and Toad with him, and the transporter that had Pietro was coming into view.
"Just so you guys know, I'm just doing this to protect Kitty, and nothing else." He told the two behind him.
"We figured as much." The fat mutant shrugged.
"Hey, I feel ya Lancey, I really do." Toad added.
The walking earthquake sighed as he got ready to cause a landslide, when he was suddenly flying sidekicked in the face by Laura who was in a pair of black pants, black combat boots, a black leather corset that complemented her C-cup chest, and her same gauntlets which she had a black pair of, lastly she was also wearing a pair of sunglasses that looked like they belonged in The Matrix.
"What the-?! Laura?! What're you doing here?!" Lance snapped as he shook his head.
"Stopping you from doing something stupid, that's what." She shot back.
"I'm doing this to protect Kitty! If I don't, Magneto'll send Gambit, or worse, Sabertooth to kill her!" The boy snapped as the transport started to get closer and the girls all came out of hiding, Kitty having heard everything and was very flattered that Lance was so protective of her.
"I'm actually flattered you care about me this much Lance, but I can handle myself. You don't have to worry. If he does send either of them after me, they, like, have a to go through everyone else… Including an angry Gavin if they make Damian cry." The phasing girl replied, that last bit being a very real fact.
"I know, it's just that-I really don't want you to get hurt." He told her, his face written with guilt. "I'm sorry I got you dragged into my mess." He told her.
"I think she pretty much threw herself into it at this point." Tabitha commented offhandedly.
"Uh, guys… We got company." Fred told them as they turned and saw Wanda walking down the road, completely unaware of them and standing in the road with her arms crossed, most likely to recapture Pietro to use as bait.
"What in the world is she doing out here?" Jean wondered.
"Answer: probably nothing good." Amara said as Wanda rose her hands and HeXed the trucks, causing their engines to explode and them to crash into the cliff, causing the holding cell Pietro was in to fall over towards the edge.
"HELP ME!" The boy screamed in fear.
"Kitty, get him out of there!" Rogue ordered.
"Wait, no! You won't make it in time!" Lance said, but his warning was too late, as Kitty quickly jumped inside the container and then out again with Pietro, but not before the container fell over the edge and the phaser and silver speedster found themselves on the verge of falling to their dooms.
"KITTY!" Lance yelled as he tried to grab her hand before she fell, but was too late. "NOOOO!" He cried in dismay. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew past him before he heard two people breathing heavily behind him. Looking back, he let out a relieved sigh when he saw Pietro with Kitty in his arms. The silver haired boy set her down so she could get her bearings back.
"Thanks for that." She told him.
"Hey, you stuck your neck out for me. It'd be pretty dumb if I didn't return the favor." He panted in reply. "But man! I tell ya I have never run that fast in my entire life. I mean seriously, it's amazing what a brush with death can do to a person." He said as he bent over while breathing heavily.
"Pietro…" Lance started as he walked up to him before placing a hand on his shoulder. "... Thanks for saving Kitty. You have no idea how worried I was about her." He told him.
"Hey, don't sweat it, we Mutants gotta stick together right? No matter what side we're on." The speedster told him while waving it off before noticing the marines headed their way. "Shoot! Come on Freddy, Toad, we better bail! See ya Lance, thanks for the save ladies!" He said before they all ran off.
"Well, at least we're kinda on good terms with them." Kitty sighed as the marines came up to them. "The military on the other hand…"
"Let me do the talking girls, you just make sure the Scarlet Witch didn't hurt any of them." Jean said as they approached the men as friendly as possible.
(Later)
Lance, Rogue and Kitty were now in the new temporary dining/meeting room with Scott and Xavier. Gavin was there too but for a completely different reason. Said pseudo vampire was still giving Scott a very murderous glare the entire time.
"While I'm not exactly going to say I don't understand why you did what you did, Lance, I still gotta admit not saying anything was pretty stupid of you." Scott told him. "Though honestly if I were in your place I'd probably have done the same thing."
"Yeah. It happened faster than I could act if I'm being honest. My bad." The earthquake generator sighed. "I just… That Gambit guy, he acted like he was really gonna hurt Kitty if I didn't cooperate and I just couldn't risk it." He added, which said valley girl responded by hugging him by the arm.
"Thanks for caring." She told him with a smile.
"As for you Gavin." Xavier told the boy as his red eyed stare refused to waver as he glared at Scott with enough intensity to make Freddy Kruger, Jason Vorhees, Michael Myers, The Creeper, and Leatherface all drop dead just with a glance. Seriously, he was quite literally glowing with murderous intent. "I must ask but: you have been glaring at Scott very viscously for the past five minutes, why?" He asked.
"... You really wanna know that badly?" He asked, barely keeping a growl from his voice. He then pointed at Scott who was honestly starting to become very intimidated right now just by that action alone. "Ask him." He said before he got up and started walking away.
"And where do you think you're going?" The telepath asked.
"Out!" Gavin called back as he stepped out of the room, causing the tension in the room to disappear almost immediately.
"Scott… What was Gavin talking about just now?" Rogue asked in a worried tone.
"Well, I know this is gonna be hard to believe but, I'm pretty sure Gavin intentionally friend zoned himself with this girl he likes to help her get with the guy she likes, only for the guy to ignore her and now it's coming back to bite him in the ass." Scott explained.
"Oh dear... That is never a good thing to have happen for extended periods of time." The bald telepath said in concen.
"Wait, he mentioned this awhile back… What did he say the girl's name was?" Rogue asked, recognizing the story almost immediately.
"I think it was Anna Marie." The shaded teen shrugged, confirming Rogue's theory. But upon hearing that second part of the girls name, her silver eyes widened in shock.
'Wait, but that's my name… Oh no, don't tell me…' She thought as the realization hit her. 'Gavin's… In love with… ME?' She thought in pure uninterrupted shock.
(Elsewhere)
Mystique was strapped down to an examination table while some scientists were running some tests on her unique mutant physiology, her body only being covered by two towels and a leather strap was put in her mouth to muffle her screaming. Syringes, scalpels and other instruments were all used on her still conscious body, and every time she struggled, the shock collar around her neck would send painful amounts of electricity through her body.
She was angry now, and there would be hell to pay to the two who left her here at the mercy of these mad men. As the doctors closed her wounds enough for her to heal, another brought two defibrillators up to the sides of her head, before rubbing them together.
"Clear." He said before he put them to her head and electric currents went through her brain and her muffled screaming continued to echo throughout the base she was in.
Now she knew how Chelsea and the others felt….
Dragon Emperor0: Okay I know that Mystique isn't exactly the best person in the world, but damn, with what they're doing to her you'd think they're trying to brainwash her like with Chelsea and the others.
ThermalsniperN7: If these dickheads are surviving HYDRA members, maybe Gavin'll take pity on her and bust her out. If not… Well, he still might, depending on who's running the place.
Dragon Emperor0: Yeah, also, looks like Rogue is finally starting to come around. Better late than never, I guess, right?
ThermalsniperN7: Fair enough. Let's just hope she'll be able to sort out her emotions when the final test comes around.
Dragon Emperor0: Jesus fucking Christ, you're right! We still have two chapters until the big Self Possessed incident happens and one chapter before Gavin's fuse shorts and he blows up like the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs! God Almighty, this is gonna get NUTS!
ThermalsniperN7: I want to say that it won't be that crazy, buuuuut this is Gavin we're talking about here, so that's about right. He's gonna need a shoulder to cry on after the stress is unloaded.
Dragon Emperor0: Yeah… Anyway guys, see you guys next time!