Apparently, Logan did na' have the time to tell Laura to leave me alone, but you know, I do na' mind much. Do na' get me wrong, I love Pan (and I really ought to tell her sometime), but being around Laura has made it easier to live with certain things I've done.

"You did it for your girlfriend." she said once, "If any bad guy threatens to kill me, you have my full permission to rip him a good one."

"That makes two people I am willing to kill for. More than two, actually... I'd do it for any of the Parkers as well."

"And I wouldna' think any less of ya." she said, imitating my accent.

We laughed.

Later, Peter called, and I had the idea to celebrate the end of the Civil War by inviting everyone involved, hero or villain, pro reg, or anti, to celebrate with us. So far, people seem to think it be a great idea, as long as no one decides to ruin the party by fighting.

Elixir said he wants to go, but I haveta' protect him from Aunt May he says. Heh. 'Twill be fun.

******

"Now Scott," said the Professor, "Laura is doing a very fine job as hostess to our young friend, Angus. However, I feel it would be beneficial for him to spend time with one of our most famous and respected X-Men."

The Professor looked at me, but he didna' have to. He had said exactly what we had agreed on.

Scott whined, "But Professor, the others here don't really res..."

"Now Scott, don't worry about a thing. Angus is a quite friendly young man, and I'm quite sure the two of you will get along well. Show him what we, the X-Men, are all about."

Scott wasna' fully assured yet, so I pitched in, "Is it true that ya were the first student here?"

He immediately went from being discouraged, to arrogant. "Yeah, it is. You've been studying, huh?"

I looked at the Professor. He winked. That meant that he had already made a few mental changes to Scott. I started on the emotional changes.

"So... they say that ya be the best of the X-Men..." I lied. This was the first test.

"Well, actually, I don't know if you could say that. I may have been the first at the school, but if you want to judge by successful missions, or even just body count for that matter, Wolverine's the best. And then there's Storm, she's powerful, and a natural leader. She's a little tetchy, but I respect her abilities."

"I see."

As I kept working on him, he stopped swaggering so much. He was calmer, more confident. Now for the second test: Storm.

She was in the hallway, waiting for one of her students. What she didna' know, was that the Professor had ordered that student to be late.

"Worm." she said as we walked by.

Scott stopped. He looked her straight in the eye. "Look, Ororo, I know we have our differences, but when we can't even walk past each other without throwing insults, that's just ridiculous. Out in the field, we need to watch each others backs and to be honest, I don't think we can do that very well if we're like this all the time."

Storm was livid. I could have calmed her down with me powers, but that wasna' the plan.

"You chauvinistic pig! I don't like you because you're just a sniveling coward who can't hold his own in a decent fight. You curl up in a fetal position and weep. Is that what you call watching my back?"

Scott didna' move. He thought for a moment before replying. "I'm kind of busy right now," he motioned to me, "but I'll be happy to discuss this later. Meet you in the Danger Room tonight."

He walked away and I followed. Storm was left in shock.

******

I didna' spend all day with Scott, but I kept track of his emotions. Late that night, Kodiak went on a rampage and all the X-Men ran to the Professor's office. I ran down too, just in time to see Scott fly out of the office and hit the wall behind him.

"He dented my car!" he said. I have the feeling that he would have been sobbing if I hadna' changed him. As it was, he was almost sobbing then. I got to work immediately.

"I mean," said Scott as I helped him up, "I guess it can be fixed. Plenty of money around this place. I needed to repaint it anyway."

"What be the car's color now?" I asked.

He looked at me, embarrassed. "Pink."

I made a few more emotional changes.

******

It was time for the final test. I went with Scott to the Danger Room. Storm was already there.

"What is happening with Kodiak?" she asked.

"He's okay, I guess. Are we gonna finish this or what?"

"We will indeed."

Scott looked at me. "Angus, stay up in the control room. Things might get ugly down here."

I did as he said. Below, I saw nothing but a blur of lightning and optic blasts. Kind of boring.

Let's spice things up. I thought. I went through the list of Danger Room scenarios.

Magneto's brotherhood? No. Shadow King? No. Brood attack? No...

Insane, fifth level Vegeta? I like it.

Below, Scott and Ororo were fighting even. Then the scenery changed. They were in West City, and Vegeta hovered over them.

"You insignificant, pathetic excuses for life are no match for me! Prepare to die."

This fake Vegeta launched an enormous ki blast at Storm. Scott hit it with his strongest optic blast, which deflected it into the sky. Then he hit Vegeta.

Vegaeta just laughed... until he was hit by ten successive bolts of lightning as well. In the end, Scott and Ororo were beaten, but they had enjoyed themselves.

"Well, Scott, I'm afraid I may have made an assumption or two, but you're not in the clear yet." Then she left. I went to bed, and Scott went to look for Carol.

This entry was posted by Fade, on Tuesday, October 24, 2006. You can leave your response.