ax_main | Kitty, Tommy and Billy Backdated

Kitty, Tommy and Billy are in the rec room when they see Magneto's threat to humanity, then Billy and Tommy have a discussion about family and joining Xavier's team.

Kitty was tired of sitting around the rec room, or in her room, but getting down to her lab was a pain on crutches, so here she was, sprawled in a huge chair, her leg elevated on some pillows, watching reruns of Supernatural while trolling Twitter and Pinterest on her phone.

"Spoilers. Those dudes are never gonna kiss." Tommy vaulted easily over the back of the couch next to Kitty's chair and sprawled out beside her. A look of concern flashed across his face, generally too quickly for most people to notice, before it settled back in to his usual grin.

“Ew, gross, oh my god, they’re brothers,” Kitty made a face at him.

"There we go, case in point." Tommy grinned back at her. "All I know about it is what I see on the internet, and man, that shit's kinky. How's your leg?"

Kitty reached for the remote to change the channel - as much to get them off the topic of brothers kissing as to have something to do with her hands. "Ugh, my leg is fine. I mean, it's not fine, but it will be fine. I just need a few more weeks of physical therapy. I get it, okay, I'm weak, I'm not tough enough, I need to buff up if I think I'm going to join a team of vigilantes."

Tommy gave her a Look. "Who said that? I certainly didn't. Frankly any shitstorm you can walk away from -- or, you know, hobble away from -- is a victory." he cracked his knuckles and laced his fingers behind his head, sliding down further on the couch.

"I just seem to keep walking from one shitstorm to another these days," she mumbled under her breath, clicking through a few more channels. HGTV, pass. FX - some car movie, pass. CNN - lots of guys arguing about the president, pass.

Keeping track of Tommy was like keeping track of a two-year-old on crack and Billy sighed after checking his brother's room which was sans Tommy and thankfully sans Inu-Yasha as well. He was about to go check the girl dormitories when he heard very familiar annoying voice and he made a bee line for the rec room where he found him and a grumpy looking Kitty.

"Finally!" He exclaimed as he threw his hands up in the air. "I've been looking for you everywhere, why didn't you answer my texts?" He turned a small smile towards Kitty. "Hey, he bothering you?"

"What texts?" Tommy made a face at Billy. "Gone off the deep end at fifteen, such a waste of a life..." He did pull out his phone, though, just to be sure- and finally noticed the barrage of texts that filled up the preview window.

Hey! Where you at?

Hello? Answer?

Okay, really? Dude, answer me.

You little troll, where are you?

TOMMY

And all of it right below the 'silent' icon, because he'd actually remembered to turn the sound off before class for once in his life. Oops. He swiped the 'clear all' and shoved it back in his pocket. "What's so important that you're barging in on our-" he glanced at the TV quickly "-exciting evening news marathon?"

"Oh, no, no - this is a great time to go back to talking about brothers kissing," Kitty pointed out with a little smirk, finally just settling on the news and leaving it on in the background. Whatever. It was news.

Billy had been about to answer before Kitty piped up about kissing brothers, his face morphing into a mix of confusion and disgust as he looked back at Tommy. "What the hell did I walk in on?"

Nonplussed, Tommy jerked his thumb at Kitty. "Ask her. She's the one watching the show about incest and werewolves, or whatever the hell that was." He was about to tease her some more when the boring back and forth of the daily headlines on the news show turned into some kind of scuffle, with shouting. Tommy stopped to watch what was apparently a found-footage movie instead. "I guess that wasn't actually the news after all."

Kitty, on the other hand, grabbed for the remote, her heart starting to hammer in her chest as she watched the man she'd met - Magneto - took over the studio and began to speak. She didn't know what was up with the body armor. She knew, knew he could deal with bullets just fine on his own.

"In your fear and jealousy you have lashed out at your betters."

Oh god. Oh god, she thought, one hand sliding up to cover her mouth as she jammed a thumb on the volume control to turn it up.

Billy turned to the screen when he noticed Kitty's reaction to it, frowning when he saw a man in purple body armor and a weird helmet started making some grand speech. Billy glanced at his brother when the Brotherhood was mentioned, and his body went cold in fear of what this meant.

"Your time is over, ours has begun."

Billy felt something lodge in his throats at those words, suddenly feeling the need to call his family. His real family.

"Fucking hell," Tommy breathed out. His fingers flew on his phone, a flurry of panicking texts on their way out, before he stopped himself and shoved his phone back in his pocket. "Who is this asshole?"

“That...” Kitty said shakily. “That’s your grandfather. That’s Magneto.”

"What?" Billy almost yelled, turning to look at Kitty and then back at the screen in horror. That was him? There was something about being somehow related to the man who was threatening all non-mutants that made Billy want to throw up and go apologize to everyone. "Shit."

Tommy stared at the guy on the screen, his words rolling over without making enough of an impact. Was there a resemblance there, in the white hair and sharp chin, the cheekbones and eyes-? He thought there might, more than he'd ever seen when he looked at Frank.

"Crushed without mercy or regret?" Tommy's blood ran cold at the force behind the words. It wasn't that he didn't understand the anger behind it. Maybe it was because he recognized where it could come from that his stomach had gone oddly tight. His voice was strained when he spoke again. "Fantastic. Grand-dad's a fucking drama queen."

Kitty took a deep breath, looking first at Billy, then Tommy. Picking up her phone, she shot a quick text message to Bobby, too. Then she took a moment to steady her breathing and put the hysterics on the television on mute. They didn't need to listen to the media's reaction.

"I knew he was devoted to his vision," she finally said. "I never thought it would be like this." But then again, remembering that moment when it looked like he wanted to hit her - that flash of fury in his cold gaze - maybe she should have seen it coming.

Billy shut his eyes tight as he tried to think about this. Magnetic or whatever his weird future Grandpa called himself had used the term pogroms and it made Billy feel slightly ill because it was true. Mutants were being literally killed for just being born that way and some people preferred it that way, but to try and stamp down on the entire non-mutant race was not the way to do it.

Don't do anything drastic. Keep calm.

He let out a slow breath and opened his eyes, turning to look at the two with worry. "What the hell are we going to do?"

Tommy shook his head, fingers drumming rapidly on his knee. "I'll tell you one thing that's now completely off the table." He glanced up and back to catch Billy's eye. "I'm sending Wanda that 'thanks but no thanks.' Blowing up the Right, yeah. Other assholes who've made a life choice to hurt mutant kids? I'm a hundred percent behind that. This shit? Beyond too far and off into the stratosphere of 'you must be fucking kidding me.'"

Kitty didn't care if she had a bum knee or not. She pushed off of her chair and wrapped her arms around Tommy, too grateful to put it into words. Yes, Magneto had opened her eyes to the terrible things that were being done to mutants, from both the Right and the FoH, but she couldn't condone this, and she was breathlessly glad that they couldn't either.

Billy slowly sat down on the other side of them on the couch, watching as the report went to static and who knew what happening over on the other side. He hoped nothing irreparable, because if they killed someone than all hell would break loose, not that it hadn't already with that threat. He did feel better hearing Tommy say that, leaning back to rest his head against the cushions. He didn't dare hug him like Kitty did, but reached out and lightly tugged on his brother's sleeve before pulling away. "So, no moving. Good."

Tommy had frozen for a beat, then looped one arm snug around Kitty and let her do her thing. Because she needed it, obviously. And when Billy settled down beside him, bum arm and all, Tommy didn't move away. "Yeah, not so much," he replied, still relatively subdued. "Though I don't know how much that'll matter, in the wrong run. He's just made sure everyone's gonna lump all of us together anyway."

Kitty finally looked up and sat back, reaching for her crutch. "I need to find Bobby. Are you guys gonna be okay here? You're not going to do something crazy like running over to the Brotherhood's place or something, right?"

Billy managed to give Kitty a weak smile. "Don't worry, Kitty. I think I'm done with crazy, at least for a good week or two."

On any other day, Tommy would probably have given both of them some kind of grief for the question, considering that he's the only one not currently badly injured thanks to stupid and impulsive decision-making. But he just grimaced and nodded instead. "No running over there. Rude texting, I can't promise anything."

Standing, Kitty shook her head. "Text all the rude you want. I'll check in before bed." And, before they could argue, she phased through the wall, disappearing to parts unknown.

Billy watched her disappear, waiting until she was gone for his smile to slip away and sigh. "What the fuck kind of mess are we in now?"

A chill settled down over Tommy, a cold wave he blamed entirely on Kitty leaving. "Do you want the cynical answer or the 'we're not looking down the barrel of a war' kind of answer?"

Billy gave a pretty lifeless shrug before turning to look at his brother. "Did you respond to Wanda already? How exactly do we keep in touch with them when their boss," Our Grandpa. Ugh. "Is declaring war on humans? I mean, are they standing behind this too?"

The idea that both Wanda and Pietro would think that was the right answer made him feel ill.

Tommy checked his phone in a flash of motion; both Alex and Pam had replied, and neither seemed all that weirded out, or pissed or... anything that would suggest they were upset by the announcement. "Yeah, I did. Alex and Fatale, too. And they seem ... okay with it." Tommy scowled at his phone. "Am I missing something here? It feels like I'm missing something. Why would he just snap without some kind of catalyst? Or was this the plan all along?"

"We didn't really see anything in the news, but I guess that doesn't mean anything." Billy frowned at the static and moved to get the remote from where Kitty had been sitting, turning it off and sitting back down. "It might have been his plan all along. Alex said he'd been through shit, right? Maybe going through all that changed his mind long ago and now he finally has the means to do something about."

The means and the mutants.

"No wonder he and Xavier used to be friends," Tommy snorted. "They've got the same plans, just dressed up differently. And if the Right ends up getting some of us brainwashed enough to get on-side, it's gonna be all out super-war out there."

"I have a hard time believing they were ever anything. I won't deny that their plans are awfully similar, but Xavier seems much more....peaceful?" At least Billy liked to think of the Professor as peaceful and not a mad man that went on TV and threatened people. "Though it's just our luck to be related to him."

"We're not actually related to him, you know," Tommy pointed out. "You have parents. And grandparents, who have nothing to do with any of this."

Billy frowned a little at that, the way Tommy was putting up a wall between them made him want to reach out and pull on the other's hair. "Fine. He's not really my grandpa and Wanda isn't technically my mom, but you're my brother whether it kills you to admit it or not."

“She isn’t anyone’s mom yet,” Tommy pointed out, avoiding the whole ‘brother’ thing. Billy would get bored with it eventually, and it was better for everyone if Tommy didn’t get hung up on the idea. “Quicksilver got me associated with the rally attack, but you can still walk away and keep out of all of it.”

"The whole reason I don't want out is cause of Quicksilver getting mistaken for you." Billy huffed, not liking the idea of people getting mad at Tommy for something he didn't do, especially when that thing caused a bunch of people to get pissed. "I'm scared to death someone is going to come take you away because of that."

Not that he would let them. If anyone touched Tommy, they would be dealing with a deadly dose of electricity.

Tommy didn't let that one sit for a moment. "No-one's taking me anywhere I don't want to go." Not again. "If it ever looks like I'm letting that happen without a fight, you'll know it's because Xavier fucked with my mind." Still- his brow furrowed. "But why would that be a reason for you to stick around? I can take care of myself."

Billy really resisted rolling his eyes and man was it hard, the way Tommy was so insistent on keeping to the lone wolf shtick was making it difficult for Billy to keep trying.

But, still. "I never said you couldn't take care of yourself. I want to stay because-" Billy stopped, wondering if it was even worth it. Just say it and get mocked or dismissed. "Because I care what happens to you and about you, jerk."
The truly weird thing was it looked like he actually meant it. Tommy stilled, and when he replied, his voice had lost all its usual edge. "Word to the wise, Billy. I'm not worth getting hurt over."

Billy turned to look at Tommy and frowned a little. "You let me decide what's worth getting hurt over. I know you think this whole twin thing is a bunch of bologna and that I jumped on that train too fast, but even if we aren't brothers, you're still my friend as well. I don't like seeing my friends in trouble."

He glanced down at his lap and picked at a hang nail, hoping that Tommy understood that.

It was all so much bullshit, but Tommy couldn't bring the words to the surface this time. Part of him wanted- and that was the part that was going to get him in trouble if and when this whole school experiment ended, and everyone bailed in different directions. And picking a fight wasn't going to solve their current problems, as good as it would feel to have somewhere to vent the frustration simmering below the surface.

"Whatever," he muttered instead, looking away. His phone had buzzed a couple of times and he took a second to fire texts back to Pam and Alex while he regrouped. "We've still got to figure out what we're doing about this. I'm not running out and joining the Brotherhood, but I'm not thrilled with the idea of writing them all off as bad guys."

"I agree." Even though he was sure Tommy was thinking about Pam and Alex as well. Alex actually wasn't so bad, but Pam? Pam made Billy nervous, especially with how close she and Tommy seemed. "I think we should at least talk to Wanda about this, like in person, cause texting just doesn't seem right."

"And what's she going to say? 'Oops, my dad's a dick, I want to start taking classes at Xavier's instead'? Unlikely." Tommy watched Billy, not sure what reaction he was hoping to see.

Billy sighed and tapped at the hard-red outside of his cast in thought. "I highly doubt that will happen," he replied slowly, trying to think of the best way to go about this. "But she deserves to say what she wants in person, not for us just to immediately stop talking cause she sent a text we didn't like. Plus, texting can be confusing when emotions are involved."

Tommy let out a long slow breath. "Okay. So, say we meet her for this coffee date after all, and she asks us to come join the family reunion over with the Brotherhood."

"Then," Billy took a deep breath and let it out. "We say no thanks. She didn't seem like she would be super torn up in her text if we refused, more seemed like a 'Hey you're family so offer is there' kind of deal."

Weirdly, that almost made Tommy feel worse. He wasn't anybody's pity case, however many people seemed to get stuck with him as an unexpected add-on. "Serves them right if we don't," he groused. "They should be begging for us to come over, with your powers." Extra speedsters, on the other hand, apparently weren't hard to come by.

Billy shifted uncomfortably at that, the idea of people wanting him for his powers made him feel weird and uneasy. "They really wouldn't if they knew I don't know shit about what I'm doing. That's kind of another reason I want to see her, she's really the only one who could maybe explain how my powers work."

Billy sighed. "Yana tries, but her magic is really different from mine and I really need to figure this out, so I don't...send New York into space or something on accident."

"It might improve the place," Tommy joked, the requisite jabs at New York coming naturally. "But that's a fair point. So we need her on-side, at least until you get a better handle on your sparkle-fists. And I hate to admit it, but I'm getting more curious about what kind of stick this Magneto guy actually has shoved up his ass."

Billy chuckled a little at Tommy's hit at his city, forgetting almost that Tommy was a Jersey boy, which made him feel like they needed more time to actually just get to know one another. He pursed his lips a little and turned to look at Tommy seriously. "Can you be honest with me? I know you said you didn't like the crap Magneto is pulling in front of Kitty, but are you really thinking of joining Xavier's team? Um, because I honestly think you should."

Tommy looked up at him, his face registering his surprise at actually hearing that. "Who, me? You aren't afraid I'll mouth off at the wrong person, or - I dunno - accidentally start a war?"

"Yeah, you." Billy replied and raised an eyebrow. "And I have just as much a chance of mouthing off to the wrong person, example your friend Fatale and me, but that isn't stopping me from joining. Also, I really think you'd be a good addition. You can blow things up, Tommy, just by focusing on it. That's pretty valuable."

The corner of Tommy's mouth tugged up in a faint smile despite his best efforts not to. "It is pretty slick, isn't it? Anyway, we'll see. I'm not exactly Xavier's favorite student. If he's making the final selection there's no point in dealing with the drama of tryouts, or whatever the hell kind of indignity a school can dream up." He poked Billy's phone. "Text her and arrange the coffee thing, already."

"Okay, okay." Billy smiled a little and opened his phone to start typing out the message, pressing send quickly and locking it so he wouldn't have to think about it. "There text sent. Now, we play the fun waiting game."