"I've stopped hiding things," Jack said, "I'm openly doing what I want now. The base needs a few finishing touches, you guys need some gear, and we all need training."
Valerie turned to Franklin. "It's about time to lessen your restrictions a little and start training in telekinesis."
Franklin considered that for a moment. "It would be nice to have more active power. You get to talk to Dad, you come up with better arguments than I do."
"The last time you talked to him about it you used the fact that since you hadn't come back in time to stop it, it couldn't be a bad idea," she pointed out.
Franklin nodded. "Yeah, because I totally would have, I mean I've done it a couple of times now... or will."
"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence," she told her brother.
Franklin just shrugged before turning back to Jack. "So, gear and training before patrolling and I can only see Katie at school?"
"Gear and training before patrolling and visit Katie whenever you like," Jack said, "she just won't be patrolling with us."
Franklin smiled broadly at that and Valerie chuckled.
"You could just ask her out and stop doing the I-Like-You dance, you know?" Valerie asked.
"They don't start dating till Katie's thirteen," Jack told her.
"Your parent's rule?" Franklin guessed.
"No, Kang the Conqueror attacked a couple of years ago and we ended up jumping into the future and older Katie told younger Katie," Jack explained. "So, you got three months to wait."
"I don't remember that happening in this timeline," Valerie complained.
"Of course not, we stopped him," Jack said with a grin, "but the dating bit was before the attack he'd planned happened, which he'd jumped further back to try and do it earlier, which prevented it from happening at all."
"How do you keep track of all that?" Hank asked, wondering if the X-Men should create a separate team to deal with time travelers.
"I don't," Jack admitted with a shrug. "See bad guy, beat bad guy, leave headaches to everyone else who spends too much time thinking about it."
"Time travel is confusing," Speedster Lisa said.
"Only if you waste time trying to figure it out," Jack said with a shrug. "All I know is we stopped Kang, Franklin is Katie's first boyfriend when she's thirteen, and when I have the density power I have to avoid attacks that weaken my molecular cohesion or I'll have to spend my life in a containment suit."
"First boyfriend?" Franklin asked. "We broke up?"
"Your mid twenties self was dating the daughter of the Phoenix," Valerie reminded him.
"Older Katie seemed pretty happy about you being her first boyfriend, so I wouldn't worry about it," Jack told him.
Franklin frowned. "I can change the timeline," he said firmly, "I'll ask her out this weekend!"
"I guess that works too," Jack said with a shrug, "the future isn't written in stone, not around us anyway."
"More like jello," Valerie agreed.
"Our lives are very strange," Hank said, "yours more than mine surprisingly."
"I think ours were the most normal here," Shapeshifter Lisa said. "They were bad, but also boring."
"I like this more," the speedster said.
"The food's certainly better," Jack joked.
"You haven't even tasted my petals yet," Speedster Lisa pointed out.
"Phrasing," Valerie muttered as Hank winced.
Jack held out a hand and Speedster Lisa smiled, her hand glowed slightly and half a dozen 'petals' dropped into his palm. He popped one in his mouth and chewed it. "Tastes sweet," he noted before eating another.
Shapeshifter Lisa reached over and took one, popping it in her mouth. "Hey! These are better than the ones you fed us in the camp."
Speedster Lisa scratched her temple. "Maybe cause I'm happier and fed better?"
"It may not be pizza, but I like them," he told her as the other Lisa snagged the remaining petals.
"Good," Speedster Lisa said smugly.
"We should have our equipment ready in a week," Valerie offered. "Dad probably has any number of things we can use, but he'll want to go over them and test them out to make sure they're perfect."
"Tell him they need a self repair function," Jack suggested, "that should give you some more time to practice while he's distracted and make both your parents worry less."
"And we'll probably need it," Valerie realized.
"Yeah, most teams are either thrown together because of an emergency or train for weeks and months before going out," Jack said, recalling tales from the Avengers and the X-Men.
"Can we borrow the X-men's Danger Room?" Franklin asked.
"We have holosuites," Jack replied, "which are basically the same thing, just a little more advanced in some ways, since we have the latest version and the X-Men are working with an older model."
"I'm pretty sure Forge would disagree with you there," Hank said dryly, trying not to grin.
"And he'd be wrong," Jack replied smugly. "Forge redesigned everything to be more robust and easy to repair with human tech while working with an older model."
"Pretty sure Dad could make one even more advanced than both of yours," Valerie said smugly.
"That goes without saying," Jack and Hank chorused.
"What goes without saying?" Reed asked as he and Susan entered the lounge.
"That you could build a more advanced training room than what Jack and the X-Men have," Valerie replied.
Reed tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I could, but it'd be more efficient to simply make pods that connect the subjects' brains to a training sim while subjecting their bodies to the appropriate conditions. Done properly they'd have all the benefits with less risk of injury."
"And take up less space," Valerie added.
"But then wouldn't you always be worried you were in a pod and didn't realize it?" Speedster Lisa asked.
"Are we sure we aren't now?" Shapeshifter Lisa asked, a little worried.
"I can prove we aren't with a ninety eight percent certainty," Reed assured her.
"Only ninety eight?" the teenaged Skrull asked, concerned.
"Nothing in life is truly certain, just probable," Reed assured her.
"The two percent is the whole philosophy thing where you can't know if you're a dreamer or a dream of somebody else," Jack guessed.
"Precisely," Reed agreed. "Unless we can truly understand the nature of reality we must always allow for the possibility our conclusions are incorrect."
Susan sighed in affectionate exasperation. "I think that's enough existential dread for one day," she said dryly. "It was nice meeting you all. Jack, is there anything you'd like us to tell your parents?"
Jack shook his head. "Still too angry to say anything I wouldn't regret once I've gotten over all of this."
"I'll tell them that, they'll be happy to hear it," Susan told him. "Two to port down," she called out and the two vanished in a burst of light.
"Why would they be happy to hear that?" Franklin asked.
"Because he admitted he'll eventually get over how things are currently," Hank replied.
"Computer, how advanced are you?" Jack asked, wanting to change the subject.
"Physical specs or programming?" an annoyingly high pitched voice asked.
Jack winced. "Change your voice to the one used by the Enterprise's computer in The Next Generation," he ordered.
"Compliance," a pleasant female voice replied.
"Majel Barrett, nice," Hank said with approval.
"Computer, how advanced is your programming?" Jack requested.
"I'm a class four VI developed by Dr. Reed Richards," the computer replied, "physical and programming safeties have been installed to prevent true sapience from developing."
"Excellent," Jack said with a smile. "When Friday returns, have him go over your code."
"Compliance," the computer replied and fell silent.
"Why are you having Friday look over Dad's work?" Franklin asked.
"Reed is an expert in just about every field I know about, but Friday is an AI from a civilization whose AIs have never gone Skynet," Jack replied.
"Makes sense to me," Valerie said.
"Yeah, Friday is great," Franklin said with a smile, "he always comes up with great ideas, helps me figure out my dreams when I can't figure out what they're showing me, and makes really cool super suits."
"And gear," Jack said, pulling a featureless metal cylinder out of his pocket. "We really don't take advantage of that enough."
"And that is?" Hank asked curiously.
"That's the thing he knocked out the guard with," Speedster Lisa said with a grin.
"It's gene locked so it doesn't knock me out and if pressed against the exposed flesh of anyone else it injects sedatives to knock them out. We concentrated on powers so much we didn't even think to ask what else Friday could make for us beyond our suits. Powers are nice and all, but technology is everyone's superpower."
"Amen to that," Valerie said with a grin.
"I can certainly agree with that," Hank said with a smile, "though in the X-Men we mostly concentrate on power use since that is the reason we are there."
Jack nodded. "Yeah, I get that, but since we are a group focused on saving people and stopping crime I have no problem asking Friday for anything he thinks can help us." He put away the cylinder and pulled out what looked like a dime. "This for instance is a wireless camera that blends into the background when pushed against a surface so we can bug a criminal's hideout and I don't have to shrink around to an inch high and hang around, hoping to hear them discuss their evil plan."
"Had to do that often?" Hank guessed.
"Way too often," Jack said with a sigh. "It is, and I can't say this enough, really boring even if you know it needs to be done."
"Couldn't you have provided all the gear we need rather than asking Dad?" Franklin asked.
Jack nodded. "Sure, but your Dad will probably provide stuff for you that's superior to what I can get, since it'll be designed specifically for you and it'll be a thing you can work on together as a family."
Hank internally winced while not allowing anything to show on his face as he realized how badly the Power Family's parents had screwed up, completely isolating themselves from this part of their children's lives.
"That would be fun," Franklin said with a bright smile.
"And since we're just concentrating on function, we don't have to try and keep up with Dad's scientific explanations," Valerie added with a grin.
"I bet Uncle Ben and Johnny will want to help too," Franklin said. "This is going to be fun, tiring because Dad's going to go crazy on the testing, but fun."
Jack grinned. "Want to go check out the holodeck?"
"Yes," everyone else chorused.
The song 'Let It Go' began playing and Hank pulled out his cellphone. "I was unaware my coverage was this good; the roaming charges are going to bankrupt me," he said, staring at it in disbelief.
"I've got a quantum entangled signal carrier attached to a telecom satellite, you read as coming from Central Park," Jack assured him.
"Hello," Hank said, answering his phone. "Yes, Miss Frost, we are all perfectly fine. We met up with the Fantastic Four and had lunch... We are a bit beyond your range... It'll take about two minutes... See you then, bye."
"What's up?" Jack asked.
"Our temporary Headmistress is worried about her students," Hank replied. "I may have disagreements with her, but I have to admire her dedication to their safety."
"We can look at the holosuites later," Jack said, a bit surprised that the White Queen cared that much, as it was completely at odds with how she behaved.
"Are we in trouble?" the Lisas chorused nervously.
"No," Hank assured them with a smile, "she just wants to make sure you're both okay since she can't feel your minds at this distance."
"Computer, six to port down to..." Jack trailed off and looked to Hank.
"Cafeteria," the furry blue mutant suggested.
"Xavier's Cafeteria, where her cell phone signal originated from," Jack finished.
There was a flash of light and the six found themselves sitting around a table with a briefly surprised Emma Frost dressed in her hero costume which honestly resembled white leather lingerie.
"I see that when you said two minutes you were not exaggerating," she noted.
"Moonbase with teleporter," Jack offered.
"I can't read you," she complained and winced. "Barbie Girl? Really?"
"It's a catchy song and is a decent earwig," Jack replied. "Peeking in my head is more intimate than a camera in my shower, it's also really rude on top of that."
Emma Frost nodded. "If I was doing so for entertainment or to assuage my idle curiosity that would certainly be true," she agreed, surprising him, "but I'm doing so for the students' safety. I have to pay close attention to every single person I can't scan to prevent injury, death, or kidnapping, which has happened many times on this campus."
Jack winced. "You may have a good point there, this isn't a normal school with normal dangers."
"On that we agree," she said calmly. "Now, how can I access your mind beyond the constant thoughts of annoying songs?"
Jack pulled a marker out of his pocket and wrote a Kymellian symbol on his palm, showing it to her and no one else. "I'll concentrate on this symbol. Once you find it you'll be able to bypass my defenses with a little effort." He didn't really want to allow anyone to have access to his mind, but he really couldn't disagree with her reasons.
"I've got it," the White Queen said, a hint of tension leaving her frame. "Give me two of your wireless cameras please," she ordered and extended a hand, Jack responding to her tone without thinking about it.
"Why?" he asked, confused as she tucked them in her white leather bustier and got up.
"Because you are right about it being an invasion of privacy, so I'll place one in my shower and the other in my bedroom so you understand exactly how much value I place on my students' safety," she said, before striding off, her cape swirling behind her dramatically.
Jack just stared speechless for a moment. "Did I just get morally bitch slapped by Emma Frost?" he asked in disbelief.
Hank nodded, amused as he saw that her grandstanding wasn't just for Jack, but so that the students of the school would also understand her position and accept her invasive policies requiring telepathy. "It appears so," he offered.
Typing By: Abyssal Angel
Beta By: Abyssal Angel and Mist of Shadows
TN: Emma Frost is so full of shit...
Jack: "This thing you want to do is the equivalent of sticking a camera in my shower."
Emma: "It's for your safety. You might slip in the shower. People do it a lot here."
Jack: "Ok seems legit."
Emma: "Also so you understand how serious I am, let me give you permission to do the thing I'm doing to everyone else without their permission for their safety."
Jack: "Also seems legit."
Me: "and not at all reminiscent of giving up personal human rights for safety like in certain dystopian novels I can think of."