Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men or Marvel. Man, I wish I knew how to draw. That would change everything. Unfortunately, my hands have been broken far too many times for something so precise. Now they're only really good for clubbing things with.

Chapter 38: Weekend At Xavier's

So, I slept with Laura.

...

...

I suppose you want more than that? Fine, you nosy bastards.

It was fucking awesome. I mean, I loved my time with Megan, including in bed, but to be frank, having sex with her wasn't as fulfilling as it was with Laura. This is all with the benefit of hindsight, of course.

For starters, Laura had an engine that didn't quit. So, as long as I didn't finish, she could keep going as long as it took, and at a really high level! The stuff she could do, it was insane! And the girl didn't slack off, which tested my longevity. However, it's not like I wasn't up for the challenge. But Laura was just... good lord. She was gracious enough to let me take the lead for starters, but when I let her be on top and set the pace...

Okay, let me put it this way-

If sex were like a fighting game, sleeping with Megan was like playing on normal mode. It was the mode that got me used to the game, let me have fun while learning all of the basic controls, and gave me a bit of a challenge back when I had little to no idea what I was doing.

Sleeping with Laura was like playing ranked online. It was more fun, but it was a goddamn challenge. Your mistakes meant something, your triumphs meant more, and your A-game was necessary, because you were for sure getting hers, and if you weren't on it, you were going to be swept out of the room. Plus, there were lots of little nuances that the game wouldn't teach you on its own that you had to pick up to succeed.

Also... you found yourself cursing at Laura a lot, because she was so damn good.

In the end, once it was all said and done, I wound up laying down with her, curled up in my chest, sans clothes. I peeked out of the corner of my eye and saw little strains of the sun coming up through my curtain.

Until the break of dawn. Hell yeah.

I looked over at Laura. She seemed so peaceful with her eyes closed like that. Just looking at her, one would have never figured she had a body count higher than a town hall meeting. I ran my fingers through her hair, and my poisonous brain quickly got to work again.

'You and Hisako talked about this,' I thought to myself, 'Banging a teammate is a bad idea. She's gonna give herself an aneurysm calling you an idiot later.'

The other part of my mind was completely fine with that, 'Meh, I can take getting bitched out for fifteen minutes. Hisako will get it out of her system, and that'll be that.'

The negative side quickly piped back up, 'Things were getting less awkward with Megan. Consider that dead now.'

''I'm not dating Megan,' My mellow, sex-addled mind shot back, 'Megan broke up with me, and it's been more than a month since then.'

Bleak Bellamy just wouldn't let me be happy though, 'Logan's gonna cut your dangly bits off when he finds out what happened.'

'There's an easy solution to that,' The other side of my mind replied, 'I just have to do a good enough job that Laura will cut his off if he tries anything on mine.'

Man, I needed to ponder more of the great conundrums of my life after I got laid, because I seemed to have all of the answers. At least answers good enough to get me to relax... for all of thirty seconds.

'You're not what she needs,' I thought to myself as I kept looking down at Laura, 'You're not good at being someone's boyfriend.'

Maybe that was true. But I didn't care. The previous night had been great. I wanted this. And probably more importantly, Laura did too, 'I'm what she wants, and that's good enough. Laura made this choice herself,' Speaking of whom-, "Laura, you don't have to stay awake just because I'm still up. Get some sleep, woman."

From what previously looked like a deep slumber, Laura quickly cracked open one pretty green eye before gracing me with the sight of both, "But men like it when they think sex with them exhausts their partners."

Wow, what an unflattering assumption of my gender. I somehow kept myself from laughing, "What lame-ass dudes have you been with?" I asked, a big grin on my face.

Laura took a moment to prop herself up on my chest to address me properly, "By what you're apparently using as criteria, I worked in prostitution for several months about 2 years before we met," She replied.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that," I muttered, just remembering that little portion of Ruthie's psychic crash-course of Laura's life, "Anyway, I know you're playing possum. There's no way you're that tired. It took me like 25 minutes to make you cum the first time. Then it kept taking longer the next two times. You never slowed down."

"Why do you know how long it took?" Laura asked.

Because I had to focus on something that wasn't you until I hit my stride, otherwise I'd have blown my wad five minutes in. Thus, I chose the clock on the nightstand.

There was no way I was going to say that though, "...Don't worry about it."

To be fair, I didn't really change my pace either. I would have tried for longer than we went, but... you know. The spirit was willing, the body was able, but the flesh was spongy and bruised. Ironically, going to sleep would have immediately fixed that problem. Goddamn insomnia, keeping me from healing so I could have killer wake-up sex.

I was prevented from cursing my own biological makeup when I noticed Laura staring at me, "Huh? What's wrong?"

Something about her tone seemed insecure, "You... aren't upset? Angry?"

I just stared back at her, cognizant of the time dragging on as I tried and failed to work out what I would have had a problem with, "About what? Do you mean, like, right now, or in general? Because I'm always kinda pissed off."

Laura seemed put out that I wasn't getting what she was after, "About my having been a prostitute."

"Oh," I said, willing to leave it at that. From how Laura continued to stare, it was clear that this would not suffice, "...What about it?"

The WRONG fucking response, dumbass.

Word to the wise with, again, with the benefit of hindsight; if someone brings up something they're dwelling on, don't treat it as a minor deal, because it's not. Even if it doesn't bother you, even if it doesn't make you look at them any differently, it's not about you. It's about them. Idiot.

Despite Laura always doing her best to keep a straight poker face, when something got to her, it really showed.

I went into damage control as quickly as I could, pulling her back down to my chest tight, "Laura... what I mean is, I don't think you're a bad person, or that you're gross or anything. It's sex. And you did what you had to do to get by at the time. I don't think any less of you."

It wasn't like I thought I was in any danger from any kind of STD either. Not from her. With people's files on the team, I got the results their latest checkups. Laura had a completely clean bill of health. Also, I wasn't dumb enough to avoid using protection.

Laura's hands balled into fists as she pressed herself closer to me, "We have never really discussed it before."

From what I remembered, it had only come up once in passing, and I was pretty sure I squared it away and otherwise didn't think of it, "I figured that told you all you needed to know about what I thought about it, which was nothing," I gave her a bit of a squeeze for support, "Do you want to talk about how you feel about it? Did you hate it? Like it?"

I half expected her to turn me down. That was what usually happened whenever I tried to bring up something that was hard to talk about. It had happened during our date. Maybe sex-addled Laura had more clarity of self as well? Because contrary to convention, she opened up a bit.

Laura frowned, "I 'nothing-ed' it, Bellamy. It is like you said, it was what I felt I had to do to survive," She said, "Even so, people look down on sex workers. Whenever it comes up, there is always a measure of shame in how people respond."

I knew where she was going with the rest of that, "-Which makes you think you should feel ashamed," I said. Yeah, things normally went like that with prostitution – stripping and porn too, to a lesser extent, for whatever reason.

Laura nodded, "It was... like The Facility, in a way," She said quietly. She closed her eyes as I started running my thumb up and down her cheek, "I had no real options on my own. Prostitution is and always will be an industry that is easy to take part in," True enough. People would always want to get laid, "So, I was taken in, put to work, and punished when I performed poorly."

Punished? Performed poorly? My ass.

"That sounds awful," I said, giving her a kiss on top of her head.

"It was... familiar," Laura said, sighing comfortably. At least I could provide her that much, "It was easy to do, letting someone control me, doing what I was told, because it was what I had been taught all of my life. I let myself be used because it was familiar to me."

She had been raised to be a tool. For most of her life up to this point, it had been all that she'd known. Just because she'd been freed didn't mean that she would automatically know what to do with it. Of course she would struggle with it. She was probably still struggling with it, even then. And that thought made me sad. It also frightened me.

With The Facility, they beat it into her that 'no' was never an option. When she had been a prostitute, saying 'no' had probably never been an option. In fact, had she ever really said 'no' when I or someone else in a position of authority at school told her to do something?

Oh, hell...

Laura quickly picked up on the subtle change in my scent that went with my change in demeanor, "You are afraid," She accused.

"No, I'm not," I scoffed, "Laura, if I was going to be afraid of you, it was going to be before I had my tongue in your-."

"-I did not say that you were afraid of me. Just that you were afraid," Laura specified, interrupting me, "It wasn't until just a moment ago. What changed?"

The jig was up. This was one thing eating at me that I wouldn't be able to keep to myself, and honestly, I didn't want to. She needed to hear this, and I would be okay repeating this as many times as I felt I needed to, until the day that I didn't.

"Don't..." I hesitated at first, thinking of how to put my thoughts into words, "...Don't ever think you have to do things like this - with me or anyone else, okay?" I said, gesturing to our current state of intimacy, "In fact, don't ever think you have to do anything. Everyone reserves the right to tell the rest of the world to fuck off, get me?" She popped her head up to look at me in confusion, "...I just don't want to hurt you."

I told Logan that I wouldn't. Even if I hadn't, I still would have felt the same way. I didn't want anything I did to affect her negatively. I didn't want to see anyone else hurt her either.

Big, beautiful green eyes looked at me as though she still didn't quite understand and wanted me to go into deeper detail. God, I would read the fucking phone book to her if she looked at me like that while I was doing it.

"If I ever ask you to do anything that makes you uncomfortable, for fuck's sake, tell me," I more or less begged her, "In the field, in the bedroom, hell, if I'm making you breakfast and you see me making hash browns, and you decide you don't want any of that. I don't care. Speak up. I don't want to hurt you."

Laura chuckled, as though I had said something amusing to her, "You won't hurt me," She said, either out of belief in her own proven healing factor, or in me. Whatever it was, I needed her to understand where I was coming from.

"Doesn't matter," I insisted, "You're so used to people telling you what to do... I'm just afraid you'll let someone do something they shouldn't, because you think you can't say no."

If I found out that I did anything during sex that Laura wasn't actually into, but she just let me do because she didn't know how to turn me down, or didn't think to, I would have felt sick.

Laura was quick to place me into my own hypothetical scenario, pushing herself up to sit on her knees by my side, "By someone, you mean you."

"Or anyone, really," I tried to deflect, not really lying. I was a big proponent of free choice, "But... in this case specifically, yes. Remember, I basically first told you that when you joined the Paladins? It goes double now."

"Why?"

I fought the urge to say something snarky like, 'because I've been inside of you'. This was a serious moment. Serious moments required sincere, not-a-dick Bellamy.

I just decided to be straightforward. That always seemed to work best with her, "Because we're dating, Laura... if you want to do this again, that is," Laura's eyes went wide. Her only response was to slowly nod. Good, "I want you to be happy."

I wanted to try and make her happy, whatever that meant to her. Because it seemed I could only ever be satisfied when people I cared about were happy.

Laura's mouth hung open, stunned at what I was telling her for some reason. I reached up to close her mouth, and found her right back on top of me in an instant, kissing me hard.

Alright then. I could work with that-.

*KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!*

-Later. I could work with that later, clearly, because of the forceful knock that came to my door at that moment. I checked the clock and sighed, getting up and putting on a pair of pants to preserve some semblance of dignity.

"It's early. It's Saturday morning," I said upon reaching the door, undoing the locks, "Couldn't this wait until-?" I stopped talking when I cracked it open and saw Logan waiting on the other side, glaring at me, "...Uh, hey. What's up?"

"Funny thing, Glowstick," Logan started, a sarcastic, brightness in his gruff voice, "I talked to Blindfold a little while ago. Apparently, Laura never came back to the room last night. Go figure."

I sighed and ran a hand down my face, "Bet Ruthie loved that wake-up call..." I muttered. I sincerely hoped she just went back to sleep afterwards, "Dude, it's 6:45 in the morning? Could you wait until later to shake me down?"

Logan chuckled darkly, "What, and not catch you while Laura's still with you? Not a chance."

As though, she were being summoned, Laura walked over right beside me, thankfully decent (wearing one of my goddamn shirts, yes).

I opened the door a bit wider so Logan could see her too, "I was kind of hoping you'd slip out the window and not give him the satisfaction," I said to her.

"He would still know that I had been here with you," Laura replied before nodding to her DNA original, "Logan."

"Darlin'," Logan replied in greeting. He eyed her up and down, looking for who knew what for several seconds, "...D'ya have a good time?"

Of all the things Logan could have said, I didn't expect him to ask Laura about her night, knowing that he was definitely smelling the fact that we'd banged.

The extent of Laura's own surprise showed in the quick, specific blink of her eyes before her response, "Yes."

Logan let out a grunt of acceptance, "Glowstick treat you right?"

Laura looked over at me and smiled before addressing her 'relative', "Bellamy did nothing I was dissatisfied with."

I personally would have gone with, 'Bellamy was fucking awesome,' but then again, I was biased.

Logan seemed to mull things over before coming to some sort of decision on my fate, "Good enough for me," He gestured with his head for Laura to leave. She went back into my room and gathered her things.

It was kind of sad to see her go, even though this had been far from the first time she'd vacated my premises. I guess the difference this time around was that all I could think about was what it felt like to know the girl biblically.

I caught Laura by the hand as she went past me, "Ah-ah-ah. Can I call you later?"

"I would be upset if you didn't," Laura said, still smiling contently.

Deciding to take a chance, I leaned in and gave her a kiss on the lips. She let me do it, encouraging it even, when she kissed me back. Plus, Logan didn't carve out my insides like a pumpkin for kissing her right in front of him, so that was a bonus.

Pulling back, I stroked her cheek with my thumb, "I wouldn't want you mad at me, buzzsaw," I whispered.

Laura closed her eyes and sighed as she leaned into my hand. She savored the contact for a few seconds before huffing, probably as grumpy as I was that she had to leave. It was okay though. I would be calling her later. I would definitely be seeing her later.

My gaze lingered on Laura until she left my sight, turning down another hallway. There was a problem though. Logan was still there.

I raised an eyebrow at the man, "And you're still here because? Are you gonna kill me after all?"

Logan scowled and crossed his arms over his chest, "Get your ass cleaned up and dressed, Glowstick. You've got a head-shrinking, then it's visiting day."

XxX

"You've seemed distracted for our entire session, Bellamy," Dr. Garrison observed before cracking a smile, "And here I thought you were starting to loosen up around me."

"I wouldn't say troubled," I muttered back, "...Just got a lot to think about," I knew the drill by now. He was there to offer a listening ear, but couldn't do much of that if you weren't willing to speak.

"You told me. You were supposed to visit your time-displaced son today, right?"

"Yeah," I sighed, "It's not just that, though. It's been a stiff month. All the stuff that's happened... not to mention leading the whole team now..."

Dr. Garrison nodded, latching on to the first concrete concern I'd listed, "It's a big responsibility, being in charge of that many people, and ones so young. Especially when you're no older than they are. Do you think you're getting the hang of it?"

It was a tough question to look at objectively, so I tried to stall in answering it, "It's like leading the Paladins, only bigger... and with more consequences," Unfortunately, I didn't think I'd really had the best hand on leading the Paladins before even more got heaped onto my plate, "Laura said something really smart about that. I'm doing my best, and everyone trusts me. That's all I can ask for right now."

He'd been paying attention the whole time, but upon hearing the name I said, Dr. Garrison seemed to perk up, "Laurie did?"

It was a fair mistake to make. Honestly, it was kind of confusing that we had two girls with names that damn close to being similar on the team.

"No, Laura. Laura Kinney," I said correcting him as I breathed a laugh through my nose, "I don't think she's bothered to come see you, like, ever."

Laura had her own way of dealing with issues, which was to internalize it until she couldn't hide it any longer. Hopefully, since we would routinely be sharing a bed for the foreseeable future, she would at least let me know when she was troubled over pillow-talk.

Having received clarification, he caught on quickly enough, "Laura is the girl cloned from Wolverine's DNA, isn't she?" I nodded and he let out a laugh, "No, she hasn't. To be fair, Laurie hasn't either."

That brought up a note from my last notable run-in with the aforementioned girl, "She seemed kind of rattled when I brought up having a talk with you. I thought we were all supposed to."

Dr. Garrison shook his head in the negative, "That was more of a suggestion from the headmistress, Bellamy. Not an order," He said, "I don't want people to feel forced to come here. My door is open for any student who just wants a judgment-free environment to let things go."

-Which as kids dealing with screwed-up incidents time and time again, we most assuredly needed.

Dr. Garrison continued, "Every other member of your junior X-Men squad has spoken with me, however. It makes me happy that I can help."

For some reason, it put me more at ease that there was technically someone on the outside of the hero craziness that had our best interests at heart, even if he was paid handsomely to do it.

It almost felt like it was too good to be true.

XxX

Okay... so, visiting Riddick. 'Riddick' instead of 'Skip', because I refused to fucking call him 'Skip' anymore. Not when his real name was that cool.

Once I'd bashed my son from the future's face in for trying to kill me, he got locked up in The Raft, which is S.H.I.E.L.D.'s super-maximum security prison for the most dangerous people on Earth. It was probably the only place I could think of that legally had the capabilities to hold him.

After that whole episode, I'd more or less gotten a talk from Mister Summers about how I should at least try to establish some sort of rapport with my wayward, time-displaced offspring. I wasn't necessarily in agreement, as the fucker had tried to kill me several times, but I figured it was best to take the advice of someone who would obviously know better than I did. I hadn't met Rachel or Nathan Summers at the time, but I had heard some shit.

Even Logan agreed enough to actually take me to see Riddick. From meeting Daken, I could tell that Logan also had experience with keeping a fucked up relationship with one's child. Of course, I hadn't been alive since the 19th century. I was seventeen, so I had an excuse to not want any part of it.

Either way, that meant I had to hop into a car and shuttle my ass to New York City early in the morning on a Saturday. And seeing as how I didn't have a car, that meant I had to ride with Logan, who took me whenever he had business to see to in the meantime there.

Also, Saberwolf was there, because I'd decided that instead of spending the drive trying and failing to not be pissed off thinking about my future self's seed, I'd do it apologizing to Wolf for more or less forcing him out of the room last night.

"Wolf, I'm sorry," I said, turned around in my seat to look at the A.I. in the back.

Saberwolf hadn't bothered to even look at me for the entirety of the drive up to that point, "So you have said. But are you really?"

I paused and rethought the depth of my sentiment, "…Okay, let me specify. I'm not sorry for chasing you off so Laura and I could have sex. But I am sorry about how that probably made you feel," I paused to consider the depth of my regret. As it turned out, it wasn't very deep, "Come to think of it, I didn't even tell you to leave. You did that on your own."

Wolf gave me an annoyed swat with his tail, "I remember the protocol from when you had relations with Megan Gwynn. Regardless, I did not wish to remain present while you and Laura Kinney busied yourselves with your mating."

I hissed at him and took a swing of my own that didn't get close to him, "It wasn't mating. No mating was done. We fucked for fun, not to make solar-powered, claw babies... which sounds kind of awesome, actually."

It was at this point that Logan could take no more of the current topic, "-Yeah, can we not talk about you and my clone having sex, Glowstick?" He snarled, smoke from his cigar billowing out the open window as he drove, "Thanks in advance."

Honestly, he held out from trying to make me shut up longer than I figured he would have. Good for him, "You seemed like you'd accepted everything back at the dorm," I said.

"That was for Laura's sake," Logan quickly asserted, glaring over at me from the corner of his eye, "Wouldn't send a good message getting mad when she tries getting closer to others," At that point, the expression on his face softened a touch as he proceeded to admit something, albeit begrudgingly, "...And last time we talked, you were right. It's not like you're the worst kinda guy she could have shown interest in."

Well, that was... nice? Not exactly accurate though, in my books. When it came to the worst option out of the current crop of students to have a thing for romantically, I was a ways up there as far as realistic options went.

"To be fair," I said, "When I told you that, I could really only think of one person worse – Julian."

*SNIKT!*

Gripping the steering wheel tightly with both hands, Mister Logan's claws popped through his knuckles, "If it were him in that position instead of you, I probably would have gutted him," Calming down, he let out a sigh and let his claws slide away, "You might be the second most troublesome, but the drop off from one to two is steep. Let's just say that."

XxX

Ever the responsible adult, Mister Logan dropped Saberwolf and I off on Rikers fucking Island by ourselves before he fucked off to Brooklyn or something while we were busy.

The Raft was an imposing-looking place. It was situated on a separate island in the East River, like a giant stone and metal obelisk sticking out of the water. It was run by S.H.I.E.L.D., because of course it was, which meant tons of automated defenses, and heavily armed patrol vessels, and armored aircraft on standby. You had to get one of these things to pick you up take you to the fucking prison in the first place. Fortunately, they knew I was coming, and I got a ride in a chopper.

It didn't get any nicer once you were inside. The courtyard was protected by a force field and thirty ray-guns coordinated by a targeting computer. All of the guards wore top-of-the-line armor, kept their faces covered (so criminals who got out couldn't screw with them later, I assumed), and carried electrified weapons that only worked when operated by a specific guard.

Also, as a fun aside... being complete dicks, S.H.I.E.L.D. filled the water between the prison and shore with badass jellyfish that had a powerful nerve toxin in their sting. Potential escapees that had the thought to swim could expect a very thorough drowning.

There was a lot to take in as they walked me to the visitor reception center... which didn't seem to get a lot of traffic compared to the rest of the prison. Go figure.

The guard manning the station saw us coming and quickly reacted. It was probably the first time anyone had come through there in weeks, "What's with the robot?" He asked.

Saberwolf bristled at the incorrect designation, "I am an A.I."

"-He's also my emotional support," I added, stooping down to hug him around the neck, "Look at him. Look at the concern in these eyes. Can't you feel the love?" I subsequently felt one of Wolf's retractable blades jab me in the side.

The guard didn't like my attempt at a joke. My mistake for trying to bring some levity to someone's dour surroundings, "He'll have to stay here," The guard told me, "You're the only one with a pass to go in. Also, we can't let you bring anything metal past this point."

I deposited my keys and phone, but still wasn't allowed to pass, "Anything else?"

He proceeded to literally point at a big, bold list on the wall full of stuff I couldn't bring past that point. To the point, I had to empty my pockets of everything and lock it all up until I came back through. They took my belt too, and gave me string to temporarily replace it. I felt like I was a kid caught sagging his pants in middle school.

In the end, they wound up taking me through the cell blocks with two guards leading me to the appropriate cell.

All of the cells had thick, horizontal metal bars and some kind of glass wall separating the prisoners from the rest of the block. All of the inmates wore blue jumpsuits. I tried to keep from stopping and staring at some of the luminaries of the prison that I'd caught sight of as we went.

Instead of sitting down with Riddick behind a glass wall with a phone the only means to communicate, they stuck me right in front of his cell, with guards watching both of us.

It wasn't like I was going to break his ass out, but I understood. I'd spotted several dangerous motherfuckers just chilling in their cells on the way to his. These people were not playing any games about their security.

When Riddick saw it was me through the bars, he seemed surprised I was there at first. He quickly tried to put on his poker face, but it had been too late, "What are you doing here?"

I shrugged, "I came to visit you."

Upon hearing my voice, he seemed to quickly check back into 'fuck you, Bellamy' mode, "Tch. Why bother?" He scoffed.

He was older than me, but dealing with him was like trying to have a conversation with a moody know-it-all teenager. I should know. I went to school with a lot of them. Some would say that I was one.

Not me, of course. I had lots of other problems I'd cop to first. Admitting to that one would have just been embarrassing.

"Because you're my son," I replied, refraining from adding on, 'and someone told me that's supposed to be important.' I wanted to try to start off without snark, so that when this failed, I could go back saying I tried, "So... how is it in here?"

Stupid question, seeing as it was prison. Probably the prison.

In line with a stupid question, Riddick responded in kind, "Oh, it's great," He said sarcastically, "I love crapping in a metal toilet with no rim on it."

Okay, the more we interacted, the easier it was to believe that he was my kid in the future, given that I didn't shake some of my more jarring personality traits by the time he was old enough to pick things up. He was way too much of a snarky button-pushing fuck to not have sprung from my loins.

"How long are you in for?"

"Five years?"

"What?" I was shocked. That was bullshit, "You were charged with aggravated assault and attempted murder. I thought that came with ten?"

Riddick replied with a smug grin, "Go figure. I guess I just have a sympathetic face," He said, "Not like it'll matter though. I won't be sticking around for anywhere near that long."

His attitude was way too chipper for his situation. He'd had a month to sit and stew. I expected him to be angrier, "What, do you think you're gonna break out of here? I'd love to see that."

He wasn't doing anything without superpowers, which neither of us had inside of The Raft. There was a bio-energy dampener that affected abilities like ours; suppressed them.

At that, Riddick played his cards closer to his chest, "I've got my ways, dad. Don't you worry about that," He knew he'd already given me enough to chew on mentally, "...I'll see you soon enough."

XxX

Riddick's words stuck with me. Just more to add on top of the other stuff demanding my attention. Even when I didn't sleep, it still seemed like there weren't enough hours in the day. But there was no time to dwell on things. Work awaited, and we were assigned a mission. One that we as students had a very vested interest in.

I carefully selected my teammates, David (Prodigy), Sofia (Wind Dancer), Noriko (Surge), Josh (Elixir), and Laurie (Wallflower). All members of what used to be the New Mutants squad. There was a good reason for that.

"We've found Jay," Cyclops told all of us during the mission briefing. All of the others reacted immediately, almost jumping out of their seats with loud, frantic questions, "Calm down."

I was the only one who didn't flip my lid, only because I hadn't been nearly as close to him before he'd left, and because I'd been informed of this beforehand, "That's why I picked all of you guys for this."

David looked over at me, and then to Mister Summers, "And what is this?"

Cyclops continued the briefing before another outburst could happen, "You're to make contact with Jay, ascertain his condition, and if possible, see if he's willing to return. At the very least, see if he's willing to return to his family."

That one struck a chord with me. The guy hadn't even talked to his parents, his brothers, sisters, nothing since he'd split from the school, leaving all of his supposed friends behind in the process. Friends he'd endangered and didn't have the guts to face afterwards.

I started to think maybe I wasn't suited to go on this mission, seeing as how my thoughts on Jay Guthrie were as such. Oh well. Best case scenario, I didn't have to interact with him beyond potentially flying him back to school, or home, or wherever he wound up going.

"We won't be going alone," I said to the others, "Mirage – you guys' mentor, and Jay's brother are coming with us too. You guys know Cannonball, right? He's technically in charge."

Between the New Mutant alum, and Jay's older sibling, there should have been enough people there. Come to think of it, why was I even going in the first place if senior X-Men were going?

"Where did Jay go?" Sofia asked the obvious question that had likely been plaguing them for weeks, "Why did he even leave in the first place?"

I knew why he left, or at least had an idea as to the likely reason, but I wasn't going to be the one to tell them. That he was the one that had unknowingly brought the mutated Legacy Virus to the school under the guise of a mutant cure to those who would rather have been human. That he had unknowingly killed students that we all knew, manipulated by an evil man using religion to control others and target kids.

Cyclops wasn't eager to drop that bomb on the former New Mutants either, "Not my place to say. That's a question you can ask him when you find him. Cannonball is waiting in hangar. Suit up."

They were all out of the room quickly, eager to get their former teammate back. I hung back for a moment, waiting to make sure they were all out of earshot before I posed my concerns.

Cyclops beat me to the punch, however, "Yes, Solaris? Do you have any questions? Questions you couldn't bring up in front of the others?" He asked knowingly. At least he had the good grace to realize what I was doing, and waited just like I did.

I shoved my hands in my pockets to try and keep as casual as possible, "I have one obvious question that I'm not gonna ask because I think I know the answer, and another less obvious one that just messes with me personally."

Cyclops shrugged his shoulders, "Okay, shoot."

"Why am I going?" I asked him

Cyclops grinned in amusement, a smartass reply on his lips, "Because you lead the team."

No shit. That wasn't what I meant, and I know he knew it. Still, I elaborated, "But this seems more like personal business than something I should have a part in."

"-Which is why you picked the team you did," Cyclops correctly added in my stead.

"Yeah," I nodded, "So let them go sort this out."

Cyclops sized me up for a moment, scrutinizing something about what I was saying, or how I was saying it, or how I looked while I was talking to him, "...You don't want Jay back at school, do you?"

I winced at being seen through, but felt no reason to lie when pressed in the slightest on the issue, "Honestly, no."

Might it have been bad of me to feel that way? Possibly. After all, the school was meant to help mutants, and if anyone needed some kind of help at the moment, it was Jay Guthrie. He'd been questioning his own existence before the Purifiers and the Sapien League attacked Xavier's. Afterwards, knowing what his role had been in endangering the lives of his friends and even some of his family, that couldn't have done his mindset any favors.

But... he'd nearly gotten me killed. He'd nearly gotten my friends killed. He had gotten others killed. He'd put enemies of mutantkind in a position to hurt them, and not just that day they'd raided the school. There had been others that had been predicated on information he'd leaked to Stryker while seeking counsel. Even if he hadn't meant to, it had still happened, and I was the type to hold grudges, even when I didn't really want to.

Jay could come back. When push came to shove, I didn't see myself stopping him. But I couldn't see myself being cordial with him ever again. He wasn't cool with me.

"Best case scenario for me, we find him and he decides to go home," I said, shaking my head, "If he stays, he gets nowhere near getting on this team. Ever."

I would quit first. Because if my opinion on even that much was overlooked and overruled, I was clearly a figurehead, and wanted no part of being the patsy to higher-up decisions. I was promised some measure of autonomy. The entire reason the team existed was so we could stop relying on the senior X-Men to powder our bottoms and protect us.

"I hadn't considered it," Cyclops said, "If it comes up later from Dani or Sam trying to get him on, I'll handle it."

Again, I didn't need him to powder my bottom for me, "No-no, you can send 'em my way. I'll take the heat. One teacher here connected with some of my teammates already probably doesn't like me. Might as well go for a trifecta."

Cyclops let out an exasperated sigh, "Emma doesn't hate you, Bellamy. You were there when she said so herself."

I gave him the most shit-eating grin I could in response, "Oh, I wasn't talking about her, but since you brought it up – two teachers. I guess I only need to piss off Dani or Sam now, instead of both," Hey, if I was going to do something I didn't necessarily want to, I was going to get my kicks where I could, "...I still don't know why you're sending me, but a mission is a mission."

The shared levity only lasted a moment before Cyclops got serious again, "If you recall correctly, Jay's departure was a result of Reverend Striker's machinations. The Purifiers didn't die with their glorious leader, Sol."

I could read between the lines enough to make a connection, "You think the Purifiers might go at Jay?" I asked with a wince.

It would make sense. He was a loose end, and after getting their asses handed to them, they probably would have liked to take out some frustration on whatever link to the school that they could get. It didn't help that he was a fairly soft target.

"Them, or the Sapien League," Cyclops said. I'd almost forgotten about those other psychos, "I allowed Dani and Sam to go so that he feels more comfortable in dealing with us. I'm sending you because if something happens, you'll be prepared to help the others deal with it."

Right. Basically, I was just there so if a can of whoop-ass needed to be opened, I could direct traffic. I could live with that.

XxX

For the duration of the flight, all of my teammates just kept chatting amongst themselves and their instructor Dani Moonstar about what had happened to Jay, and where he'd gone. She simply speculated like the rest of them, but something about her demeanor seemed tense. Jay's brother, Sam Guthrie just remained silent, trying not to interject.

The two of them must have known already what I did. Everything I knew went into a an after-action report after the attack. It was likely that Cyclops had smartened the two of them up very soon after the attack.

It was good that I was manning the controls. I could just avoid speaking to anyone about Jay under the guise of focusing on flying the Blackbird.

The coordinates Cyclops gave us sent us to a summer camp in eastern Tennesee. Given that it was winter, there was no one around for miles. As we landed and got out, the place gave off a real haunted kind of vibe. Lots of trees with no leaves, wind blowing, no sounds of life around. Eerie.

I was by far the only one concerned with such things. Everyone else was by far more set on finding Jay, which was fair, seeing as how it was the mission. My mission, in fact. And as my mission, when we set foot on solid ground and got a bit of a look around, I started working.

"Seeing as how we don't have any trackers, what say we pair off and search?" I asked the group. Given that there were two adults there, I shouldn't have been giving them hard orders, "We'll probably cover more ground faster that way."

Dani didn't seem to have a problem with it, "Works for me. How about you guys?"

No one else seemed to have any issues with splitting up, and that was how it went. I went with Prodigy, sent Wind Dancer off with Wall Flower, Mirage off with Surge, and Cannonball off with Elixir. Seeing as how Surge had super speed, and Wind Dancer and Cannonball could fly, they had the best chance of finding Jay before anyone else.

All of them were better suited for talking him back into the fold than I was.

We all spread out and went our separate ways. With David and I being the slowest group, we stuck to checking the immediate area first - cabins and other camp facilities, to see if we could at least see if Jay was keeping belongings anywhere.

As we moved between buildings, David spoke to me for the first time since we'd landed.

"I know," He said out of the blue. I gave him an odd look, only to receive a knowing one from him in return, "I know why Jay left school without telling anyone."

Of course he knew. He knew what anyone around him knew, without even intending to. Even if he didn't get it from me, there were two other potential sources for the information.

"You'd be a scary dude if you could retain the stuff you picked up," I muttered, as a way of confirming things. There was no point in lying to someone who automatically knew the truth just by standing within six feet of you, "So, you know. Does that change anything about this for you?"

-It sure did for me. Normally, I'd have been all for finding a wayward student. But knowing what I knew, I couldn't muster up the fire to go above and beyond. Maybe it was different for David because he'd actually been friends with Jay.

My question caused David to hesitate for a moment before we continued to search cabins, "Jay... was a New Mutant, but he never seemed to want to be," He started to say, "We saw him as a friend, but he just... never seemed interested. Did you know he was on the Hellions first?"

I scoffed in return, "No. That's a weird wrinkle."

David nodded absently in agreement, "We used to have Kevin on our team, but he felt like the Hellions had his back more than we did in one situation, and that along with his fight with Josh over Laurie..." He trailed off, shrugging his shoulders, "Jay had no problems with switching. I guess it didn't matter one way or the other to him."

Jeez. Every time something about the old squads came up, it became clearer just how much of a mess my team combining them had the potential to be.

David continued, "He kind of always stayed at arm's length. Whenever the team had problems, he always seemed to be on the outside," He chuckled and adjusted the visor over his eyes, "I think we all kind of came to him with our problems. He has a way of making what's bothering you seem trivial."

I listened as well as I could, but couldn't help but note that he was stalling, "You never answered my question though."

"I didn't," David said, knowing that I wasn't going to be satisfied until I got some kind of answer, "...How would you feel if he was your teammate?"

Wow. What a stinger of a way to turn my own question around on me, "I don't know. I'd like to think that if Jay had been on my team, none of this would have ever happened," I liked to think that I'd kept a close enough watch on the Paladins that things like that wouldn't have occurred. Clearly though, David didn't want a cop-out like that as a reply, so I dug a bit deeper, "And if it did... I'd probably be madder at myself than I would have been at him."

David smiled grimly, "There you go, then. It's why I didn't tell anyone else when I picked it up from you. They would have all felt like shit, just like I feel now."

No matter how all of the student squads interacted with each other, internally, they had all been very tightly knit. Almost like family in some cases. It was the one thing we'd all had in common. From the Paladins, to the Hellions, to the New Mutants, to the Paragons, to the Corsairs, to whatever other squads there were... if anything like this would have happened to a member of any of those teams, the rest of them would have taken it hard.

"They're still going to feel like shit when they find out," I pointed out, just for the sake of conversation.

David grunted in agreement, "Hopefully by then, we'll have found him and made it back to the school."

I rapped my knuckles off of the nearest log cabin wall, "Knock on wood," I said, for luck.

XxX

After three hours of looking around, things were beginning to get frustrating. More searching and check-ins from the rest of the team bore no fruit.

I stopped to pee, while David checked in over the radio with our teammates, "Okay, Nori. Keep checking," He let out a sigh, ending the conversation just as I was finishing up, "Was this really where Cyclops told us to look? Where are the coordinates he gave?"

"On the jet," I replied, adjusting my junk properly inside of my uniform, "I know how to read coordinates, Prodigy. Emma couldn't ping him with Cerebra after the attack, but he popped up here right before Cyclops called me in. If anything changed, they would have let us know."

Emma or one of the Cuckoos would have given me a quick brain ring with new coordinates if he had gone somewhere else. If he was on the run, they would have let me know that as well. Jay hadn't gone anywhere. He was somewhere nearby.

David crossed his arms and leaned against the trunk of a tree, "Even if Jay had seen the Blackbird coming, if he'd have taken off to run away, one of us would have caught sight of him."

"One would think," I said, having finished relieving myself, "Just keep looking. It's all we can do. Put the technology in those specs of yours to good use."

Seriously, even if it was the middle of nowhere, how hard could it be to find a kid with big-ass red bird wings? No sign of him? Not even a fucking feather? It was Sunday! I only had so much weekend left!

Enough of the nature hike…

"Jay, you dick!" I shouted into the open air. David visibly cringed at the volume of my voice, "Come out already!"

David grabbed my shoulder, still alarmed at my sudden outburst, "What are you doing?"

"We're not hunting the dude. We're just looking for him," I said, explaining myself, "So, if he can hear me, he needs to bring his ass out!"

A paragon of sensitivity I most certainly was not. And, unfortunately, when you went around loudly talking shit, sometimes you paid the price for it. The saying, 'be careful what you wish for', was appropriate here.

From behind, both David and I were hit with enough force to send us both flying. We were knocked to the ground several feet away from each other. I pushed myself up as quickly as I could, while a dazed David scrambled to get his back against a tree to help him stand back up.

To his credit, the entire time he struggled to get up, he never stopped looking for the initial threat, "What the-? Jay?"

I followed David's line of sight to see the winged boy slowly lowering himself to stand on a tree limb high above us. True enough, it was Jay, shirtless and barefoot, only clad in jeans in the middle of winter. If that wasn't enough of a look, it wasn't even the most jarring thing about him.

His skin was pale and greenish, and not like 'sick and tired' pale and green. Unnaturally so. It went up into eyes, even.

Neither David nor I were foolish enough to think that any of what was about to happen next would end well. Still, I had to try and be civil. We weren't some search and destroy team. Fighting was supposed to be a last resort, especially with someone who was supposed to be one of us.

David was the first of us to try and reach out, "Jay, what happened to you? Where have you been?"

"Getting what I need," "I feel... this feeling under my skin. It's like fire."

"Dude, have you been doing Kick? Is that still a thing?" Maybe Eddie had been on to something when he mentioned previously that Jay might have been doing drugs.

Jay must not have thought that my question was very valid, because he stopped focusing on himself and started focusing on me. Admittedly, I probably could have posed my query a bit more delicately.

And he could have refrained from trying to divebomb me in response.

I was able to avoid him by the slimmest of margins. Jay twisted in the air and landed on the trunk of a tree, hard enough to crack it, and pushed off to fly at me again. That time, David tackled me out of harm's way.

Gritting my teeth in anger, I lifted a fist to shoot Jay out of the sky, only for David to push my arm, "No!"

He threw off my aim, letting Jay get up into the air where he circled overhead.

"Prodigy! What the hell!?" I barked at him, using his codename. The assist with dodging was welcome. However, I was none too pleased by his interference with my shot. I didn't wait for a response, as there was a fight afoot, "Jay, get back down here!"

He did as I wished, diving down again, coming straight for me. I fired a blast at him, but he barrel-rolled past it and plowed into my chest with his shoulder. I had to admit, it had been a hell of a maneuver. Eddie-esque in its execution.

From where I'd been knocked flat on my back, a wheezed a deep breath and sat up, "Damn... was Icarus always this strong?" I asked, checking for broken ribs.

David shook his head, keeping his eyes on Jay as he flew through the trees, trying to throw us off, "He wasn't much for fighting, but he was never weak. This though..." He trailed off, "Something's wrong."

"Oh, you think?" I snapped sarcastically. I hadn't flown all that way to get beaten up, "Fuck this. I'm kicking his ass."

Before David could stop me, I charged off after Jay. If he wanted to scrap, I was exactly the right person to take him up on it.

I fired shots at him, but it was hard to get a bead on him when he was weaving through the forest. I couldn't bend light, and there was nothing to reflect my shots off of, so the most I wound up hitting was trees.

'If this was an open field, I'd have his ass,' I thought to myself. It was little relief. Jay could come right back at me and attack, but now that I was warmed up, he didn't so much as graze me again.

We were both stuck, unable to hit each other, until during one of Jay's flying rushes, I ducked behind a tree, with the plan to shoot him from behind the moment he flew past. Instead of flying past, he stopped his momentum and used a branch to swing around the side of the tree to kick me.

Even if it took me getting hit to get him up close, I was fine with that. I was pretty good at hand-to-hand combat. I stumbled back, but the moment I planted my foot and stopped myself, I lashed out with a high kick. The son of a bitch swatted it away with his wing!

Fortunately, I'd taken my share of knocks from Wolverine and Laura. And one thing I'd learned was that just because one thing failed, didn't mean you stopped everything altogether. Jay's wing swatted my kick away and spun me around, but I went with the momentum and fired a concussive blast over my shoulder that hit him dead center and sent him flying back into a tree.

Just because we were fist-fighting didn't mean my powers were off the table. He'd used his, after all.

By this point, David had caught up with us. He bore witness to Jay getting right up from my counterattack. I hope he was just as surprised as I was. Probably not as disheartened though.

"Come on..." I whispered to myself as Jay rolled his neck and I heard bones and joints pop, "That shot would have put down a charging bull. How is he standing?"

"Jay has enhanced regeneration," David mentioned.

I didn't care. That shouldn't have mattered. I got all of that one, "A shot like that would have put Laura out. A shot like that would have had Santo picking up pieces of himself."

Even Jay seemed surprised that he was getting up. Surprised, and very pleased, "It's true," He chuckled to himself, looking at his hands, "Things are different now. No more feeling sorry for myself! No more letting other people use me! I'm not weak! I'll find my own answers!"

"Who are you talking to?" David called over to him, because he clearly hadn't been speaking to either of us, "Jay, it's us. What are you doing? Come on, man. Let's just go home."

Jay scoffed at the idea, "Home?"

To his credit, David kept trying, for the sake of his former teammate, "Yeah, back to the school. Back to Xavier's."

Jay let it be known that he had little to no fond feelings of the place, "You mean the place my mom shipped me off to because didn't want to deal with me anymore?" He said hatefully, "She never knew how I felt after Julia..." He trailed off, not wanting to say anymore.

I looked between the two of them, completely at a loss, "Who the fuck is Julia?" I asked. Why did everyone's baggage keep coming back to screw me over? "Stop. Bringing. Up. Stuff. I. Wasn't. Here. For."

Apparently, saying some girl's name was a trigger, because Jay flew across the short distance and pounced on me, pinning me to the ground with both hands around my throat before I knew what hit me.

"You're dead," Jay seethed as he strangled me.

I instinctually started prying his hands away from my neck, only to realize that he was in prime position to catch two scoops. I shot him off of me with concussive blasts, this time with both hands. He went flying head-over-heels up into the air, only to right himself with his wings.

I kipped up to my feet, and could feel the size of the scowl on my face, "You really wanna kill me? You better have something more than your flying cream puff tackles up your sleeve."

I didn't know what Jay's issue was. I didn't know what was enhancing him. But it didn't matter. He moved faster, hit harder, and was more vicious than he should have been, enough so that it was overwhelming to someone like David.

...But by that point, I was beyond used to that kind of crap. So, Jay wasn't much of a fighter? Well, we were about to put that to the test, because just being aggressive wasn't going to fix that all of a sudden.

By then, David had seen enough of my tendencies to know when I was about to go off, "Don't hurt him!" He called out in an effort to stop me.

I spared half a glance his way, though I was still glowing, "You just said he has enhanced regeneration! Elixir can fix whatever I do to him anyway."

"And Wallflower can make him calm down!" David argued back.

I couldn't help but admit, he had a point, "...Well, what are you waiting for then? Call them!" I snapped.

"I already called them when you took off running after Jay!"

I guess I needed to give them a signal to follow, then, "In the meantime, we're going with my plan then!" Which was beat the shit out of Jay until he stopped trying to beat the shit out of me.

I boosted myself into the air through my feet, straight at Jay. He was able to flap his wings and push himself just out of my way, but I immediately laid off the jets and from a position above him blasted him down toward the ground.

Jay crashed through bare branches and tree limbs before hitting the ground face down. Before he could even start to move, I dropped from the air and controlled my fall, landing directly with the point of my knee in the small of his back. A move like that was designed to make a man a paraplegic.

It was fine. He would heal. And if he couldn't heal himself, Josh could do it.

Without the use of his lower body, that left his arms and wings to flail wildly, gasping in pain until he finally blacked out. I looked over at David, and the look on his face was priceless. Granted, it probably looked extremely violent from his perspective... and to be fair, it was.

Me kneeling over Jay's motionless body was the sight all of the others arrived to see. In what was probably my wisest move of the day, I got the hell off of him before Jay's older brother Sam could see what I'd done to defeat him.

"Right..." I coughed, trying not to look conspicuous. Fortunately, Jay hadn't beaten me up very badly, and with his whole regeneration schtick, he was already healing up as well. Good, because there had been a black bruise across his back where I'd landed, "...So, when he wakes up, Wallflower, do your pheromone thing and make him chill out," "Don't want him tearing up the Blackbird..."

"Tearing up the Blackbird?" Noriko repeated questioningly. She stopped near Jay to appraise the dirt and grass all over him, "Did you have to beat the shit out of him?"

The question seemed to unanimous amongst the lot of them. Clearly, no one else there had surmised just how badly I'd beaten the shit out of him, or there likely would have been more outrage.

"Ask Prodigy," I said, fully done with the day I'd just had.

Thankfully, David corroborated in my defense, even though I'd just pummeled someone who'd been a friend of his, "Yeah, he kind of did. Jay just... went nuts."

He didn't know how to explain it, and neither did I. Josh jogged over and kneeled down by him to check him over, "Whoa, shit!" He quickly jumped back when a green substance started leaking out of Jay's ear and onto the ground.

Sam was quick to his brother's side out of concern, "Elixir, what the hell is that? Solaris, what did you do?"

"I didn't hit him that hard," I said. I didn't hit him that hard in the head, at least.

After the green goo had left Jay's body, his skin went back to its normal tone. No green tinge to note of.

Well, at least there was a new, less personal reason to take Jay back to the school; to figure out just what had been done to him.

And that's the chapter.

So, I'm kind of excited about what I have up next. I've wanted to do something with the elements I'm about to use for a long time. I'm not sure how it'll be received, or if anyone will even know what I'm getting into. But I write these to amuse myself, mostly. Whatever feedback I get, be it positive or negative is a bonus. Therefore, it will be done as I see it.

Aside from that, I hope you guys enjoyed. I'm hoping I could bring you a few minutes of levity while most of us are stuck at home, or at best just shuttling between home and work.

Until the next one, Kenchi out.