3,607Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men or any Marvel property. If I did, these motherfuckers would have had at least one movie, or another series other than X-Men '97 by now. Goddamn, Disney. Come on, now. Get this shit moving already, mouse. Do you want my money or not?
Chapter 48: Spinning Two Plates
Being barred to campus as part of my punishment for an unsanctioned excursion into deep space presented problems for me.
None of my issues were team related. As the leader of the X-Men team of students that had been assigned to me, we could still go out on missions, but that didn't stop certain people from trying to take advantage of the situation and move themselves up. Those people (just Julian, really) tried to schmooze their way into interim leadership roles while I was effectively grounded. The attempt at a bloodless coup was smothered in the crib by both the rest of the team, as well as Mister Summers and, to Julian's surprise, Miss Frost.
My superiors weren't admonishing me for doing something dangerous. We were X-Men. Everything we did was fucking dangerous. No, I was being chewed out for doing something dangerous without proper support in place.
My punishment wasn't for doing anything particularly reckless that played with the lives of others who trusted me. I'd had a plan with backups and contingencies in place.
Not for exploiting my status as leader for a personal issue. I didn't press anyone into helping. All involved had volunteered. At the most, I asked.
Not for anything that affected the team as a whole, because nothing that I'd done did that. To the decision-makers, I was still the best option to take the reins. Besides, nothing about my situation prevented me from carrying out any leadership duties.
So... you know... potential usurpers to my position could suck it.
That was one thing I didn't have to worry about, at least. One of the other things? A celestial force – or a fragment of one, at least – making a cozy little secret vacation home in one of my favorite people in the world and leaving what was effectively a kill switch in my chest.
At this rate, I was going to start getting grey hairs from stress before I turned 18, if I didn't explode, that is. Even the normally relaxing practice of familiarizing my girlfriend with pop culture couldn't take the edge off completely. And Laura, of course, noticed.
"Are you alright, Bellamy?" She asked, looking over her shoulder at me from little spoon position while we relaxed in my bed.
"Yeah. Why?" I replied.
"You just seem a little distracted," Laura said, "And every so often, I am picking up a bit of fear from you."
She was smelling my fear? Of course she was. Damn Laura and her super-sniffer. God help me if she ever knew I was lying about something. There was no way I'd be able to keep it from her. All I could do in this case was chalk it up to general anxiety, "Do I? Sorry. I guess I just wish I could do more for date night this time around than, well, this."
Laura smiled at me and nuzzled her head against me, "I have no problems with this. This is pleasant."
The whole setup was domestic as hell. It was the weekend. We had tons of snacks, nowhere to be, no missions to run, and tons of quintessential movies and TV for Laura to watch so she could be corrupted into the same obnoxious, degenerate culture the rest of us were subjects of. Seriously. My cinephile ass had come up with a list for her, and I added to it almost every day.
She always made it seem like she was humoring me whenever it came up around others, but I knew she enjoyed it when we did this. She was even starting to make suggestions of her own at this point, which I was all for. The only thing I'd found so far that she disliked with absolute certainty were slasher movies, and it wasn't because they scared her. Supernatural horror, with ghosts and monsters and curses and whatnot were fine. It was the content of slasher films that hit a little too close to home for Laura to properly disassociate from.
I wasn't seeking to trigger her while trying to find her things that she might enjoy watching. Still, as comfortable as all this was, the line between comfort and boredom was thin, and I did not want to bore my baby. She deserved my A-game, and I told her as much.
"This is nice," I agreed before making my point, "...But I want to spoil you every time we get some alone time, and having me stuck on campus is making that really hard to do."
Thankfully, I should have been free and clear by Valentine's Day. That meant I would still have to come up with something good by then, but of all the things I was worried about, that wasn't one. My brain excelled at the mundane.
Laura's brow furrowed, which I by now knew meant that she was trying to work out some kind of confusion over whatever I had just said. It was adorable every time. I just waited. I knew eventually she would bring it up aloud.
"Why?" She asked.
There it was, just like clockwork. I smiled, "Why what?" I replied.
An annoyed grunt escaped her, knowing I was playing dumb, "Why spoil me?"
I stared her down for several moments before I began listing off reasons on my fingers, "Because you were benevolent enough to grace me with your affection. Because the universe owes you a whole lot of make-goods for the crappy start to your life, and I've decided to be the vehicle for it. Because you're fine as fuck. Because my ego won't allow me to be anything less than extra," I gave her a wry smile, "Do you want me to keep going? Because I can."
Laura laughed slightly, "While it would be interesting to see how many of those answers you could come up with, it is not necessary. I understand."
Good. I had lost one girlfriend already because I didn't pay her enough attention. Lesson learned there. I wasn't about to smother Laura with my presence, but I was going to make sure she knew she was valued and cared for.
XxX
Miss Pryde fortunately wasn't confined to the containment machine she had been placed in to make sure she wouldn't just phase away at a moment's notice. Because Dr. Henry McCoy was one of the most disgustingly intelligent people I had ever met, in a matter of weeks, he had been able to create a suit that provided the same effect as the machine. That meant Miss Pryde could actually move around and interact with the world around her again. She needed to wear a clunky, inconvenient suit at all times to do so, but it was better than the alternative of not being able to touch anything at all.
"Fashionable," I said, poking at her and her suit when she had come to see me, "Can you even feel it when I do this?"
Miss Pryde rolled her eyes and swatted my hand away, "Shut up, Bellamy. God, I forgot how much of a smartass you could be."
At that, I scoffed, "No, you didn't."
"No, I didn't," She agreed, smiling at me.
"Well, at least I can hear you now," I said. God, it was good to hear her again. Seeing her like this touched the guilty nerve in my head. She was stuck in that suit because she spent so long fused to that Breakworld bullet, phasing it through anything it might destroy out in space. We couldn't keep it from happening, and it took us so long to get to her, "Listen, Miss Pryde, I'm... I'm..."
Before I could find a way to get out what I wanted to say, her smile became strained, "You know, if you say you're sorry, I'm going to chew you out."
"Even if I mean it?" I asked.
"It's because I know that you mean it that makes it extra annoying," Miss Pryde replied, "Do I have to tell you why? Because I already went through this with Piotr. He was way weepier about it than you look like you're going to be, so that's good at least."
"I'll spare you then," I said, heaving a deep sigh, "Alright, fine. No more dwelling on old stuff."
She had a point. While no one would ever mistake me for Mister Positivity, I had been way too gloom-and-doom as of late. Yes, there was no shortage of problems that needed to be worked through and dealt with, but all the same, I was being way too negative.
All things considered; I had received little more than a slap on the wrist for what amounted to a major conduct infraction. The most annoying thing was being restricted to campus, but the second part of my punishment, more sessions with Dr. Garrison, was actually great!
The more I talked to him, the more it seemed like he just got me. He wasn't just some empty suit taking notes while I laid on a therapy couch. He actually contributed input that made me think. When he made suggestions about how to handle certain things that I brought up, they just seemed to make sense to me. No wonder he was in such demand with high-end clientele. It was a wonder he wasn't advising politicians or business magnates. Instead, he was playing guidance counselor to a bunch of pimply-faced teenagers with superpowers.
It was a curious decision, but hey. It had been working out for us so far.
"People keep telling me that I'm doing fine. That I shouldn't need to try and be 'the guy' all the time. That I'm still figuring things out," I said, lying on my back staring at the ceiling from the comfort of the therapy couch, "I don't know. It's like, I know they're right. I just feel like what I'm doing isn't enough, you know?"
"That's a very negative way of looking at things, Bellamy," Dr. Garrison said, a small note of chiding in his voice, "That was something we were meant to be working on."
"Yeah... yeah," I mumbled, "I'm trying not to be so negative all the time, but you know..." It was harder than you would expect to look on the bright side of things. At least it was for me.
"Alright. Let's dive into that a bit more then," Dr. Garrison patiently suggested, "Tell me, why do you think you're this way now?"
It was a question that required some thought. Even as I dug through my own head and tried to look objectively at my past, even before I got my powers and came to school "I couldn't tell you off the top of my head, really. I haven't ever really been able to just accept good things for straight up being good," I tried to explain, just as much to myself as to him, "...There's always a catch, you know?"
Dr. Garrison pressed his hands together, a thoughtful expression on his face as he processed what I had told him, "Bellamy, I know heroes. Big-time heroes. I've worked closely with them, just like I am with you now," He said, "I've heard their hopes, seen their insecurities firsthand. I know how they tick, so trust me when I say that you have all the makings of a great."
I rolled my eyes and laughed, "You don't have to flatter me to get me to come back. I kind of don't have a choice," I joked.
"I'm serious," He insisted, "You put pressure on yourself and take whatever steps you think you need to in order to deliver. But where I think your problem is, is that you don't have much of anything tangible to show for everything you've accomplished."
"What do you mean?" I didn't know what he was talking about. My reward for what I had accomplished was not being dead and my friends (usually) being alive as well. That should have been enough, given failure meant the end of everything I had come to hold dear.
Dr. Garrison continued to make his point though, "Think about it. Athletes receive trophies and awards. In the business world you get promotions, receive raises and bonuses. Even public servants like firefighters and police officers are publicly recognized when they perform a great good."
It made sense in theory, but none of those things were why I'd bothered to be considered for the X-Men in the first place, "That's a little shallow, isn't it?" I asked.
Dr. Garrison shook his head, "When you have the kinds of abilities that can make a difference, and you work your hardest to make that difference, what's so awful about wanting something, anything, in return for yourself? It's human nature."
It was odd how quickly he was able to start changing my mind. Almost immediately, I started seeing things from a different perspective. The doctor was right. It didn't matter how altruistic anyone's intentions were. Everyone wanted something. Still, I was resistant to agree outright, even though I found it difficult.
"I don't think that would make us any different than mercenaries then," I said, though I sounded a bit uncertain of myself in doing so.
"Not at all," Dr. Garrison said good-naturedly, "I'm not saying to withhold your services if some form of compensation isn't given. I'm suggesting that there may be opportunities to further the mission of the X-Men, and benefit personnel as well," He smiled and winked, "I've actually spoken to Cyclops about this. I almost have him onboard with a new idea."
"Wow," It was impressive that he could suggest anything that Mister Summers would take under serious consideration so quickly, "How did you manage to pull that off?"
"I just approached things with him as an outsider with a fresh perspective on a problem that's been plaguing the X-Men and mutantkind as a whole," He said, "For years, the only time the world at large was ever aware of your activities was whenever some sort of widespread calamity took place. Even now, people only ever hear about the X-Men when something bad is happening, even when you're the ones actively fighting against it. It's my opinion that you all need to take on assignments to make yourselves more visible."
The antisocial side of me didn't appreciate the way Dr. Garrison phrased that, "This sounds a lot like public outreach to me..." I muttered.
"That's one aspect of it," Dr. Garrison said with a chuckle, "Your team is perfect for what I have in mind. You're all young, bright-faced kids. You don't have any of the reputation or history that the older X-Men have in the minds of the general public, so you're more likely to be given the chance to connect; especially with people your own age or younger."
Connect? Because that had been working out so well for all these years, "Oh yeah, and in no time, we'll be just as big as the Avengers," I joked, "Kids'll love us. Toys, t-shirts, all kinds of merch."
"Why couldn't you?" Dr. Garrison asked, "I'm serious. With all the things that the X-Men have accomplished, that you'll continue to accomplish, why shouldn't you be held in just as high regard? Why not profit off of that regard? Because you're mutants? If things are ever going to change, it's going to take more than just trying to make a difference in the field. You need the proper p.r. push, and honestly, it might be a refreshing change of pace for you, something you desperately need."
"I don't see how any of this is going to make me better at my job."
"It's my professional opinion that you need more experience to feel comfortable with your leadership abilities."
"Doc, I've fought genocidal terrorists. I've been to space. I've been to literal Limbo. I don't think experience is my problem right now."
"Do you really believe that's the general rookie experience for every hero? For every X-Man, even?" Dr. Garrison asked, "For starters, you're accustomed to only dealing with missions where everything is on the line. Your perspective is skewed. Have you ever had a mission that you could possibly define as pedestrian?"
"Not really..." To my recollection, we had only been on one official mission where failure wouldn't have equaled complete catastrophe.
We hadn't really had any softball missions since the team had been formed. No warmup assignments meant to build trust, experience, and confidence. It wasn't even anyone's fault really. Most of the things we had gotten involved in hadn't even been assigned to us. They just happened around us and we had to respond or die. Necessity had us thrown into the deep end from the outset.
Dr. Garrison continued, "My point exactly. When you spend your life walking a tightrope, you take your balance on any surface more stable for granted," He said, "If I can get my idea through, I believe it could not only benefit you, but the next generation of X-Men entirely, in so many ways."
As apprehensive as I had been about everything at first, I found myself coming around bit by bit. The more he spoke, the more he made sense to me, and the more what he said sounded like a good idea. By the end, I was almost up for it. Almost volunteering to give it a test run, even.
Dr. Garrison reached out a put a hand on my shoulder, "I think a change of culture would do this place good. More progress, less self-sacrifice. I believe talented people should get everything those talents can afford them. Settling for anything less would be those individuals doing themselves a disservice."
Yeah. He was right. And really, what was so wrong with that?
XxX
There hadn't been much use for the Danger Room when it came to training purposes, not since its deadly malfunction back in the spring. We usually just repurposed it as an empty space for bare-bones sparring. My team of X-Men usually made use of the Danger Cave that David had secretly constructed back when student squads had been a thing. Less technologically advanced than the Danger Room at its peak, but its simulations were enough to keep us sharp.
I didn't need any of that though. I just needed a place to train away from prying eyes. Not for me though. For Ruth. One of the... perks of having a fragment of the Phoenix onboard was access to its eons of experience. It insisted that Ruth could benefit from hosting it while it was still weak. The problem was, no one could know about this whatsoever, or getting detention or suspension would be the least of my worries.
The Phoenix wasn't exactly subtle... so we couldn't just do as we pleased whenever we liked. Fortunately, my insomnia came in clutch once again. No one poked around those caves at 3 in the morning. Still, we had to be extra careful. The instant I saw anything off, I was shutting the session down.
...By that point, it would be too late for anyone to actually do anything useful, but still.
I had tried to see to my own training while the Phoenix walked Ruth through methods to improve, but my nerves eventually got to me and I caught myself watching Ruth like a hawk more than doing anything else.
"This is gonna give me an ulcer," I said to myself, only for the Phoenix fragment within me to respond.
"She expressed a desire to improve. A desire for more strength. All for the sake of helping her loved ones. Protecting them. Protecting you. The same way you have always protected her."
As understandable as Ruth's desires were, this 'opportunity' that dropped into her lap still made me uneasy, "I can't believe this is actually happening."
"Why not? This relationship is not parasitic. I will not merely take from my host," The Phoenix fragment insisted, "And I have been one with the most powerful telepath in the universe. I have numerous insights on how this one can improve."
And, of course, Ruth being a stronger host was that much better for the Phoenix fragment within her as well. But neither of us said that part out loud. Still, nothing bad had happened yet. The most I could do was my utmost to keep things that way. I wasn't keen on having the fragment within me go off. Of all the ways to die, I could think of so many more useful or cooler ways to go out.
As far as Ruth went, however, her training focused on her telepathy. Her issue wasn't control. For as spacy as she was, her fine control over her power was top level. When it came to mind powers on this level, imagination was key, and Ruthie had a very active mind. She could do things even Miss Frost wouldn't consider. The knock on Ruth, and the primary reason she hadn't been considered to join my X-Men, was her lack of outright power.
Miss Frost boasted versatility as her chief trait. While she could and would straight up brute force her way into your head to do as she pleased, she could still turn your thoughts inside out with finesse if you proved too tough a nut to crack directly. The Cuckoos weren't as strong as Miss Frost, but they overwhelmed your mind with numbers, hitting one after another, all at once, or probing at different angles of your psyche to mask their real attack. It all depended on how they wanted to play things.
Ruth and I trained together a bit on our own ever since I had been given my own team. Personally speaking, I was fine with Ruth not being on the X-Men. Sometimes I felt like even associating with me, Hisako, and Eddie as she did was a little too close to be considered safe, but I felt better about that than having her on the proverbial pirate ship proper. It wasn't about what I wanted though. As the good friend I aspired to be, it was my place to help her improve as much as possible to make her ambitions a reality.
In our sessions, I basically served as a training dummy, letting her poke around in my head and figure things out about her powers for herself. I didn't really care if she read my mind or dove into my memories or anything of the sort. It wasn't like I had anything to hide. It also wasn't like I knew enough about telepathy to properly instruct her. I only knew how to rudimentarily defend myself from psychic attacks, so experimentation was the only thing we could do.
My only condition was for Ruth to refrain from altering something, since that had the potential to be permanent. We'd already had enough trouble with that in the past, but at least then it had been innocuous... mostly. With her housing a Phoenix fragment, I could only imagine how much more damage could be done if that bled into her abilities.
Things went without incident, and we started the short trek back to the dorms once the sun came up, our session finished. We still had to get ready for classes that day. It wasn't until then that the Phoenix fragment spoke up to me again.
"Something was taken from her. Something important. She is less than whole."
"What are you talking about?" I asked out loud before realizing that I was basically talking to myself out loud, 'Do you mean Ruth?'
"What you have seen from her, what you believe is the limit of her abilities, she is capable of more," The Phoenix fragment told me, "If only she could get the rest back."
"I have no idea what that means," I admitted. Ruth had apparently been in on the conversation as well. She grabbed me and pressed my forehead to hers, sharing her memories.
I knew Ruth lived with her aunt, and the circumstances behind it hadn't exactly been pleasant to say the least. It was that knowledge that led me to never pressing the issue and asking more. It wasn't my place to dig up anyone's bad memories just because I was curious. If I didn't need to know something, I could live without dragging it out of someone.
I really didn't need to know what she showed me.
Ruthie had basically been ID'd as a mutant from the moment she was born. Coming out with no eyes or even open sockets kind of waved that red flag right out of the gate, resulting in her being tested before even manifesting any powers. Her dad didn't stick around for long after that; not even a week, really.
While her mother had to work long and hard to support two kids by herself, that left Ruth alone with her brother. If Ruth's old man was a dick, her brother was an apple that didn't fall far from the tree. In fact, he probably grew up to be an even bigger tree that dwarfed the one he came from. He hated Ruth. She was a mutant. She had caused their father to leave. Having to take care of her was the reason that things were so hard. Everything wrong in his life was because of her.
Luca Aldine. Let me tell you, this guy was a real winner. He treated Ruth like shit. Less than human. His own flesh and blood. He openly demeaned her, abused her... even put his hands on her. Once he was big enough to do so, he did the same to their mother as well. He dipped into drugs... started stealing from them to afford the habit, and things only got worse from there. Plenty of run-ins with the law eventually led Luca to rehab. And, if you can believe it, things got worse from there.
Luca's sponsor in rehab was some bigoted minister type. Like a Reverend Stryker type with far less ambition, charisma, and competency. But he managed to work his magic on Luca enough. I guess the mutant-hating thing did enough to confirm Luca's world view that he fell into the darker aspects of it all fairly easily. Casual violence was a slippery slope, after all.
It all came to a head when he eventually came to kill Ruth – with a chainsaw. Her mother died protecting her, torn apart trying to shield her from harm. It was a good thing Ruth couldn't see conventionally. I can't even imagine how grisly that scene actually was, even from what she was able to pick up in her mind's eye. She definitely heard it though, loud and clear. Which meant I heard it.
He was arrested and eventually got the chair. It was upon attending his execution years later that everything changed. Ruth had been learning control while living with her aunt, and true enough had access to more abilities than she currently had. But after the execution... she somehow became the person that she was by the time I had met her. Broken. Incomplete. Less than whole, as the Phoenix fragment had labeled her.
Even at the moment of his death, her brother screwed him over one more time.
No. To hell with that. Luca Aldine wasn't her brother. He didn't deserve to be called that.
By the end of the memories, I was almost seeing red. I could taste bile in the back of my throat. I honestly didn't think it was possible to feel that much hatred for someone I had never interacted with. Never have I been so happy to know that someone was dead, yet simultaneously disappointed. Disappointed because I would never get the chance to tear the guy limb from limb myself.
"Goddamn it..." I wiped a furious sweat from my brow and spat on the ground. The vision had literally left a horrible taste in my mouth, "...Am I the only person that goes to this school who doesn't have some traumatic, difficult backstory?"
What did you even say to a person after seeing something like that? I decided that the best course of action was nothing. She could read how I felt, what I was thinking. That by itself likely said what needed to be said. And just in case I didn't, I grabbed her hand.
She may not have had me at the time when she needed as many people in her corner as possible, but she had me now. Just another reason why if she had to go through this Phoenix fragment thing, she wouldn't be doing it alone.
XxX
Things changed considerably prior to one of our team practices. With everyone gathered in one place for a session meant to be overseen by Mister Summers, the man himself walked in, clad in full Cyclops garb, ready to work, save for a pretty important announcement he needed to make beforehand.
"Gather around, everyone," Cyclops said, not that he necessarily needed to. The moment we saw him, he had our full attention. The man had a straight up commander aura that I couldn't even imagine matching, "Just a little piece of business to get through before we get started."
"Is Marcher getting canned?" Hellion asked, a little too excitedly as it got him a sharp elbow poke from Mercury, "Ow! Damn it, Cess..."
Seeing as my own were policing themselves, Cyclops ignored Hellion's belligerence for the time being and pressed on, "I've been very pleased with how this team has performed since we consolidated the student squads. Honestly, I figured there was just as good a chance of this going up in flames straight out the gate."
'Gee, thanks,' I fought the urge to say out loud. It would have been hypocritical though. It wasn't like I hadn't felt the exact same at moments.
Cyclops continued, "-But with how you've all performed with the missions we've assigned you... and the ones that just fell into your laps... Headmistress Frost and I were thinking of ways to possibly expand on your roles. But then, Dr. Garrison came to us with a proposal we both found intriguing."
The idea of Dr. Garrison managing to convince the two of them to do anything, stubborn as they were, was insanely impressive and highly improbably. Setting aside the fact that he was tinkering with the affairs of an X-Men team, it was our team; the baby X-Men team – the one that the powers-that-be would probably be more wary of something happening to.
It was even crazier when we found out what the plan was.
"A lot of the X-Men's work goes unseen, and when it is seen, it comes with a lot of... shall we say, negative interactions with others," Cyclops said, "We're going to try something different with you all. Something more public," He waited for us to digest what he was saying, to speculate to ourselves on what he could have meant before actually telling us, "We're going to experiment with taking on outside requests."
All of us were dead silent at first. It was hard to believe what we were hearing, "...You're kidding," Wing eventually said.
"Not at all," Cyclops said, "Dr. Garrison had several good points. For one, the X-Men have been an in-demand entity since the existence of mutants went public. For another thing, we can only find so many things that require our attention on our own. And, it would only improve how we're perceived if people actually see us helping others."
The more he spoke, what he said sounded like it made sense. The only weird thing was that it didn't quite sound like it was coming from him. When he talked about what we would be doing, it kind of sounded like he had heard Dr. Garrison out and then said it back to us near verbatim. That it was happening at all was too surprising for me to think about it any harder from that angle though.
Practice was pretty much secondary at that point. Most of us seemed to just go through the motions. The bombshell of what we had just been told took precedence over everything else. Even when practice officially ended, a lot of the team still hung around just to shoot the shit after.
"So, we're taking requests now?" Armor asked sardonically.
"I think they're more like tips," I said, trying to keep one of my closest friends from getting upset. It wasn't as fun when I wasn't the one getting on her nerves, and truth be told, I didn't feel much better about the state of things.
"But they're paying us to do stuff," Rockslide said, "So, that makes us mercenaries, right?"
Wing chuckled, trying to look on the lighter side of things, "Well, it sure beats only getting called in when someone's guaranteed to shoot at us, don't you think?"
Match scoffed, the flame engulfing his head flickering as he did so, "That depends on what you're in this for."
"Well, what are we in this for?" Hellion asked before looking around, as though he were posing the question to everyone, "Dr. Garrison was right. The heroes we know aren't beloved just because they kick ass. It's the small day-to-day stuff that really lets people get comfortable with you."
"Something tells me this isn't just going to be small stuff though," I said. Things rarely went that smoothly for us, after all.
"That's even better!" Hellion insisted, "We can handle whatever. Cyclops thinks so, Frost thinks so, Dr. Garrison thinks so. That's good enough for me."
It wasn't about what we felt we could handle though. After all, the missions we were sent on by request would likely be less unhinged than most of the things we just so happened to stumble into. I trusted Cyclops to properly vet any requests that came in. It just all felt... off, somehow.
Maybe we all just needed to get used to it? And there was always a chance that things wouldn't change for very long anyway. This was only a trial period after all. At least, that was what Cyclops said.
It was after practice that Laurie sought me out, away from the others. I had stayed behind to clean up after our session and everyone else had long since made themselves scarce. It wasn't rare for team members to take that time to bring things up to me – problems or concerns they had, or just ideas they wanted to float my way that we didn't have time for. Some people didn't like writing an essay's worth of a private message, and preferred getting things off their chest in-person.
"Bellamy, can I talk to you?" Laurie asked after flagging me down on my way back to the dorms.
I nodded and headed her way, "Yeah, what's up?"
As much as Laurie was part of the team, she was far from the most vocal. It was rare that we ever spoke without anyone else around, even with as much as I used to interact with the old New Mutant student squad she was on. We weren't really friends the way that I was with some of the others.
Hands shoved in the pockets of her coat, she let out a deep breath that I could see in the frigid air and sat down on a bench set along the walkway. We stayed outside instead of going inside where it was warm, likely to best keep from being overheard.
I simply stood and waited patiently while Laurie seemed to gather her thoughts. There was no rush on my end. I had nowhere to be. The cold didn't bother me very much either. In addition to my own winter jacket and hat, I could warm myself up with my powers.
"I wanted to talk to you about Dr. Garrison," Laurie eventually said, "I don't trust what's going on, and I don't think you should either!"
Fair enough, I had my own apprehensions about the plan to expand on the kinds of missions we took, but I wasn't adamantly against it either, "Relax. Even if we're going to start doing stuff for clients, or whatever Cyclops said we'll be doing, I don't think we'll get assigned anything much harder than what we've already been doing," I said, trying to make her feel better, "We don't really have any say on our missions anyway, so-."
"-No," Laurie interrupted me, "I'm talking about Dr. Garrison specifically. He's not the kind of person any of you think he is."
I stared at her for a moment, "You haven't gone to see him yet, have you?" It was supposed to have been mandatory for everyone on the team to meet with him at least once.
Laurie's face twisted in distaste, "No! And I'm not going to! No one should!" It was the most conviction I had ever heard out of her myself.
She really disliked the man. But why? I didn't understand. Dr. Garrison was the best. He always listened, was always there to help, and he was always right.
...Right?
Yeah. Definitely. I just had to convince her to see him, or I could trick her into a meeting with Dr. Garrison. Everyone needed to see him. It would only be good for her, the way it was for all of us. I could find a way to get them together. I was the leader, after all.
The entire time Laurie had been talking to me, I had been thinking of a way to trick her into seeing Dr. Garrison. She eventually stopped when she realized that my mind was elsewhere and waved her hand in front of my face to get my attention, "Bellamy... when was the last time you saw Dr. Garrison?" She asked, a touch of fear in her tone.
"Three days ago," I answered, even more confused when she let out a sigh of relief. Now I was starting to get upset. It felt like we kept dancing around the heart of the issue because she didn't want to broach the subject, but she had called out to me, "Laurie, seriously, I need you to talk to me or I'm leaving. What's your problem with Dr. Garrison."
The blonde bit her lip fitfully and looked away before finally coming out with it, "He's my father."
I made certain to look her in the face, even walking around to make her look at me directly, "Are you fucking kidding me?" She shook her head, a nervous expression, "He's your dad?" A nod, "The prick dad you were telling me about before Christmas?" Another hesitant nod, "How is that even possible? How is this just now coming up?"
"I can explain!" Laurie blurted out, grabbing at my jacket as if to keep me from walking off, "Please! Just, it's really complicated, and more uncomfortable than you could ever imagine, and I didn't want to say because no one would believe me because he's already gotten to everybody I could have gone to! His powers are like mine, but I think he's stronger, and he's had years more practice than I've ever had, so he's way better at sneaking it on people-!"
Wait, powers? As in, mutant powers?
"Okay! Okay! Okay!" I exclaimed, getting her to stop panicking, if only for a moment, "Take it easy. Just hold on one second. There's a simple way we can start getting this all straightened out," I pulled out my phone and made a quick call. It was picked up almost instantly, "Hey, Saberwolf. How's it going?" I asked, putting the conversation on speakerphone.
"There are only three hours left on an event I am attempting to complete, but there do not seem to be any players available at a high enough level. Other than that, I am fine. On that note, would you happen to be available for a few hours this evening?"
"What game are you talking about? Because if this is you trying to sucker me back into playing Destiny, I swear to God-," A pointed look from Laurie reminded me that there was more serious business to attend to, "Actually, I wanted to ask you a question for a friend. You know Dr. Garrison, right? Your scanners picked up that he's human, didn't they?"
"Negative. Dr. Sean Garrison is a mutant."
"..."
"...Bellamy? Are you still there?"
I pointedly tried to ignore Laurie giving me an 'I-told-you-so' look as I tried to get more clarification from Saberwolf, "...Did you know that this whole time?"
"You did not?"
I felt like launching my phone as far as I could into the snow, "No! No one did!"
The guy was famous, and never once in all of his time publicly advocating for mutants, working with superheroes, syndicating his television show across the country, did he ever even slightly allude to being a mutant. How did he skate by all this time without anyone ever bringing it up? Hiding being a mutant was hard enough when you were a nobody, let alone when you were a celebrity shrink. Come to think of it, even when he came to work at the school, I don't think anyone ever even asked.
Actually, how did no one know he had a fucking daughter? A daughter who went to school with us at that!
I hung up the phone and paced around, "My head hurts..." I complained, fingertips pressed to the side of my head. I massaged my scalp through my hat, "I have so many questions..."
"I can explain," Laurie assured me, "Well, I can get you to someone who can explain better than I can, but we have to go, right now."
"Just us?" I asked, although I was already following her as we hurried to the front gate.
"You're the only one I know that hasn't been hit with his pheromones recently enough to completely override your judgment," Laurie explained, "I can't even say anything that isn't positive about him to anyone else without getting shut down."
That... tracked, unfortunately. Even when I was hearing her out, it was in one ear and out the other. I was more absorbed with trying to think of a way to change her mind. I was never dismissive when any of my people came to me with a problem. I had all 24 hours of any given day at my disposal. There was no concern any of the team could have that ever be considered a waste of my time in that context.
Once we were outside the front gate, there was a red SUV waiting out front. Laurie smiled at the driver and hopped in the passenger's seat, "Come on, let's go. Hi, mom!"
Her mom. We were getting picked up by her mom.
Laurie proceeded to introduce me once were good and seated, "This is Solaris," She said as the vehicle pulled off, "I told you about him before, right? He's our team leader."
I can't imagine there was much she told her that could be considered good to the ears of a well-adjusted parent. Still, I tried my best to look like anything other than the antisocial piece of work that I was.
The woman, who looked exactly like an older version of Laurie, only with the addition of a pair of glasses, looked back at me and smiled, "My name is Gail. Nice to meet you."
She seemed so nice, but there was nothing that was going to make this feel any less lame to me. No matter what happened, I was definitely taking an Uber back to campus.
XxX
Laurie's mother Gail actually lived in Salem Center. It turned out, when her daughter enrolled in Xavier's, she packed up and moved to stay close to her. I couldn't decide if I thought that was a nice thing, or serious helicopter parent syndrome, but seeing as how her presence was currently beneficial to me and my needs, I leaned toward the former. And once I was given some background, I understood the reason she did it.
According the them, Dr. Sean Garrison's entire career and all of his success was actually built on the use of his mutant powers. He had the same empathic pheromone ability that Laurie had, but unlike her had no qualms about using it whenever and however he liked.
He manipulated people to get money, fame and women. Laurie's mom was one of these women. They stayed together until Gail gained immunity to his powers. The reason why? Because she was pregnant with his child: a child with Dr. Garrison's exact powers.
I could only imagine how much fear and disgust that had to have left her with once she came to her senses. It was a wonder she managed to hide it long enough to put together a means to get away from him. Gail got the hell out of there as soon as she could and raised Laurie alone.
So many things made more sense with that knowledge. Laurie's timidity and reluctance to use her mutant ability, despite how powerful everyone recognized it could be.
To double back to a sentiment I had previously expressed – was I the only person who went to Xavier's that didn't have some traumatic, difficult backstory? The worst I had to deal with before getting sent to school was a Friends of Humanity lynch mob... which really should have stuck with me more than it did. But this wasn't about me.
"If he's doing anything with your school, it's because he wants something from it," Gail told us, "I have no doubt he has some kind of scheme to profit off of the X-Men."
He'd already finessed the school into paying him a king's ransom to be our counselor. How much more could he want? What was the point?
"From what you said, and from what we found out today, he's at least going to golden goose us. Make celebrity superheroes out of us," I said, remembering a previous conversation we'd shared. He'd outright asked why the X-Men couldn't be as acclaimed as the Avengers, "But that'd take forever, if it ever even worked out at all."
"He has the connections and he's patient enough," Gail assured me, "With constant exposure, eventually people won't be able to distinguish their own thoughts from the suggestions he persistently implants. After a while, you'll keep doing what he wants, even if he isn't around to keep reinforcing his will," she said, speaking from personal experience.
Great. So, if Laurie hadn't smartened me up, we would have wound up managing Dr. Garrison's little scheme to get rich off of us for him. Hell, we still might. None of this changed much of anything. The same problem persisted. If he had his hooks in everyone else as deeply as he had them in me, changing their minds would be difficult.
Actually, it sounded like if this went on for long enough, he wouldn't just be able to profit from the X-Men, he could control them altogether.
He'd been there for nearly six months, giving him plenty of exposure to everyone on the team, more than he'd had with me in many cases. The same went for plenty of the senior X-Men as well and other students around school. If they were worse off than I was, things could get messy if we played this wrong.
"How long does it take his pheromones to wear off?" I asked. It was only the first in a long line of questions I asked as I began trying to cobble together something resembling a plan. And we needed a plan. Confronting Dr. Garrison directly at the wrong time had a high chance of blowing up in our faces.
If someone threatened him, what would stop him from just blasting us with pheromones? Screw being subtle, just turn their brains to mush. What would it matter at that point? What would stop him from blasting everyone around him with pheromones and causing an all-out riot just to allow himself a chance to escape? Who was to say he didn't already have contingencies worked out just in case someone threatened him?
There were too many variables that I didn't like to consider a direct approach. Now that I knew there was an enemy, I could start making arrangements. That being said, I was not excited about having to play subterfuge games on a second front. Between Dr. Garrison and the Phoenix fragment, I wasn't keen on having two different plates spinning at the same time.
Eventually, I had to leave. It wasn't anything unusual for Laurie to spend the night off-campus at her mom's place, but I couldn't just not be around all night. Attracting suspicion of any kind was the last thing I needed. The idea of spending the night at her place was also extremely awkward, so there was no way I was going to do that.
I had to turn down Gail's offer to drive me back to campus as politely as I could. I was just going to walk to the mall or something and call an Uber or wait for a shuttle; there were still a few running. She insisted though, until Laurie rolled her eyes and interjected, "Mom, he's team leader. I think he's better off taking care of himself than letting you look out for him."
"Oh, alright," Gail eventually relented. Still, she clearly didn't like the idea of letting a teenager wander off into the cold night, "Just be careful getting back."
The trip back to campus wouldn't be the most dangerous part of what I was up to, but I appreciated the sentiment, at least, "I will, thank you."
With that, Gail left me alone with Laurie at the front door as I got ready to head out, "Hey, Bellamy, thank you for hearing me out. It's nice to know there's someone I can actually go to about this."
"It's my job. You still had to push harder than you should have needed to," I said as I zipped up my winter jacket and yanked my beanie over my curly mess of hair, "Why didn't you just override his pheromones with yours to get me to do what you wanted?"
At that, Laurie frowned, looking uncomfortable, "Other than the fact that I don't like manipulating my friends, my pheromones wear off way quicker than his do. You would have known what I did, and you immediately wouldn't have trusted me afterwards."
And she would have been alone, on an island. She would have been screaming into the void, unable to do much of anything to effectively stop what she knew was happening right in front of her. But now she had me, at least. And if we did this right, we could get the ball rolling downhill to right everything.
"Don't worry," I told her, "We'll ride this out for a while, get things in place, set up a strike. Just like training, yeah?"
"Yeah," She tried to offer a smile in return, "I'll see you in class. Good night."
"Night, Wallflower," Bidding her farewell, I began my walk out of the neighborhood to the heart of Salem Center proper. The walk wasn't just to give me some plausible deniability on where I'd been all evening in case I needed it. I used the time to think.
Laurie would actually be kind of critical here. She was the only living person at school who would be immune to Dr. Garrison's pheromones. Worst case scenario, if I screwed up, she would be the only person who wouldn't be under his thrall, which would be extremely useful in a pinch.
First thing was first though. I had to figure out who would be safe to loop in straight out of the gate. Fortunately, I already had a few ideas to start with.
Bellamy Marcher - "Don't Think, Feel"
Laura is insanely hot.
Not really a shocking revelation, I know. But I feel it's an obvious thing that still needs to be established.
It isn't just how she looks, though she was an absolute stunner in that department. No, it's a combination of things. Seriously, between how fine she is, plus her personality of being an aloof, yet awkward and well-meaning sweetheart, plus the intrigue and scare-rousal that can only come from hooking up with one of the most dangerous assassins in the entire world, how could I not have been all in on dating her? I'm only human... mutant... whatever.
As most healthy young men did, I had a libido. Surely enough, Laura did too. And she was so blunt about it. Really, the girl had no subtlety at all, even in front of other people – strangers, friends, adults, and family. The first time she brought up us sleeping together in front of Logan, I didn't know whether to start running before he could kill me, or die right then and there laughing at his reaction.
The risk was worth the reward, as my Buzzsaw was an absolute livewire in the sack. I had a feeling that she was using me to blow off steam sometimes, since quite often after a heated practice or a less than pleasant run-in with someone in school, she would take my hand and drag me off to somewhere private.
Hey, we all had our forms of stress relief. I watched movies and played video games with toxic player bases, so I didn't have to feel bad about verbally unloading on some random kid in Iowa. Laura tended to get a lot of hers out through fighting. She used to cut herself when she was really upset, but it had been a while since I'd caught her doing that; mostly because I think she replaced that with me – so, progress.
But I was still dealing with Laura... who more often than not either didn't know what she wanted, didn't feel comfortable asking for it, or otherwise didn't care one way or the other.
It was an odd mix in the bedroom, as I was literally willing to do whatever my partner wanted. I wasn't the choosy type. Pretty much all of the things I could do for her would involve my dick going inside of her somehow, and that was really the only requisite I needed to be satisfied. Therefore, all my efforts routinely went into trying to figure out how to optimally ring Laura's bell. Despite my best efforts, it seemed like I could never get her to just cut loose and let go, until one night-.
*SNIKT!*
I knew what I'd heard when it happened, even through the mind-muddling orgasm I'd just had. I waited a moment to allow my head to clear. As I did, I created a light in one of my hands to quickly make out what I originally wasn't sure I was seeing in the near pitch dark.
One of Laura's hands had been balled up into a tight fist, gripping tightly onto sheets and comforter. Indeed, a claw had popped free, tearing through fabric and mattress. The tip of Laura's other claw was stabbed into the headboard.
"Laura, did you just pop your clawsies?" I asked in bewilderment.
The answer was obvious. I was looking at them, after all. For some reason, my sex-addled brain just needed to hear it to properly process it.
"...Maybe."
I grabbed one of the ankles that rested on my shoulder alongside my head and pulled it far enough away to see her foot claw poking out between her toes. Having a pair of blades suddenly spring loose that close to either side of my head should have been more alarming than it was, but my sense of danger had long been stunted beyond repair. It wasn't even the most dangerous situation I had been in that day.
Instead, I was curious as to why she had bothered, and a bit worried.
"Are we under attack?"
"No."
"Did I do something that hurt?"
"No. Quite the opposite, in fact."
The matter-of-fact way that Laura spoke threw me off for a moment, until I realized what she was saying without telling me. When I did, I could feel the victorious expression form on my face, "You've got to be fucking kidding me. I made you do that?"
"Yes," Laura confirmed. She reached up and stroked my cheek with a concerned look, "Are you alright?"
"Why would I not be alright?" I asked, "This is awesome!"
"I almost hurt you."
I chuckled and gave Laura's ankle a gentle shake, "Buzzsaw, the only way you could have hurt me was if your fists or your toes were against me when you popped claws."
One of my pillows had been good and skewered, but it was a worthy sacrifice. It was just so awesome to know that I could make her do that! Even if it was just an anomaly! I didn't even need it to ever happen again! Just the once was enough! But I would definitely be aiming for a repeat every time we had sex from that moment forward.
As ecstatic as I was, there was still something off to me though. I hadn't been doing anything that I hadn't already tried on her before. I hadn't been particularly aggressive, and the position we had been in was run-of-the-mill.
"You've been sandbagging me," I accused the girl now curled up comfortably on my chest.
"I do not understand," Laura replied.
"I've been trying to figure out what I did differently tonight to get that-," I pointed to the damage done to the bed from her claws, "-Out of you, and I'm drawing a complete blank. So, process of elimination states that if it isn't something I did, it's something you did. You've been trying to not enjoy it when we hook up."
Laura pushed herself up far enough to give me a skeptical look, "If I did not enjoy having sex with you, why would I let you do it so often?" She challenged.
"I don't put it past you to just let me flop around on top of you even if you don't like it, as long as you know I do."
Laura let out a huff and shook her head before she leaned down and kissed me, "I like it, Bellamy," She assured me, "I just... do not wish to harm you, so I have to keep complete control. No involuntary reactions."
I immediately shot that down, "Fuck that. React involuntarily," The idea that she was putting actual effort into not reacting during sex that she admitted to enjoying was crazy to me. Only Laura could find that kind of concept reasonable, "Squirm, scratch, growl, yell. I don't care. Don't think, girl. Feel. Express yourself."
"And what if I...?" Laura let the question hang in the air, asking the rest of it by allowing the tip of a claw to slide free of her knuckles.
"It's the fighter's responsibility to protect himself at all times," I cheekily shot back.
That was how making Laura involuntarily pop her claws officially became the new benchmark for performance. It was nice to have goals.
...Just as long as she didn't start faking it to make me feel better.
And that's the chapter. Shorter than usual this time, especially for how long it's been since the last one, but hey.
Regardless, our boy has two potentially volatile situations percolating around him at the same time, and for once, instead of reacting, he's going to try to get ahead of at least one of them.
Bellamy, son, you're about to get a lesson in how to prioritize your problems.
That's it for now, everyone. I hope you enjoyed. Kenchi out.