Scott and Ororo - Backdated
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ax_mainScott and Ororo log in some Danger Room time, then chat over drinks.
Scott took a seat on the floor of the Danger Room, just to breathe for a moment before he figured out what he wanted to do next. He'd completed a lower-level obstacle course already, working on general fitness and some more refined control of his powers (which was to say, more refined control of his visor). It wasn't necessarily as action-packed as doing a more aggressive sim, but it definitely still had its uses.
The real question now was what he wanted to run next.
"Did it manage to wipe you out?"
The question came from the sound system, and Ororo waved at Scott when he looked up at the observation room window.
He smirked up at her as he waved back. "Not on your life," he replied. "You up there to watch, or do you want in?"
"Is that really a question?" Of course not; it was an offer, and one Ororo was eager to accept. "I'll be right down."
She disappeared from view, and walked into the Danger Room a few seconds later, dressed in her usual grey jeans and boots, along with a beige long-sleeved tee. She never dressed specifically for Danger Room sessions, because she saw no reason to. "Did you have anything specific in mind?"
He shook his head 'no.' "Was debating between oppositional scenarios or obstacle course. You have a preference?"
"The one, then the other?" Ororo offered with a small smile.
Scott gave her a pleased-looking smile. "Challenge accepted. You have any preference on the type of opposition?" He went over to the in-room controls so he could set it up. Unlike Ororo, he had changed his clothes just for the DR, from his jeans and t-shirt to a sweat-wicking shirt and some sweatpants. He glanced over at her. "Woods, urban environment...?"
"Urban is more challenging for me," Ororo answered, although the truth was, she didn't really care. She just wanted to train.
He hit a few buttons. "Got it." Scott set them for multiple assailants, urban environment, and set it to nighttime just for the additional challenge. "Let's do it."
Ororo's eyes went white as the scenery changed around them, and electricity crackled over her hands. Nighttime wasn't much of a problem when she turned her powers on; heat was one of the things her sight could pick up on, when she went white-eyed. "What's the scenario?" As in, what level of force should they apply.
Scott looked over, somewhat impressed. In the dark, his visor compensated for the dark-colored lens and red-wash of his own mutation, essentially giving him night vision. His visor glowed ominously. "Lethal attackers. If possible disable, if necessary, use appropriate force."
Ororo nodded. "Got it." A bullet whizzed past her, not missing her by much, and she whirled around to face her would-be killer even as she soared up into the sky. No reason to give them a target where they'd expect it. A strong gust of wind swept through their attackers, who had taken cover behind some parked vehicles, sending a few of them off balance.
Ororo's assailant had stayed steady on his feet, so Scott dialed back his force - hard enough to hurt but not enough to break a bone, yet - and hit him center mass before rolling out of the way to take cover behind a car. The multiple layers of metal would keep away most direct hits and the way it was parked would make it harder to flank him. He popped his head over the top to hit a guy's head with another blast, watch him drop, and then drop back into cover.
It was good Ororo was there too. It was just too many guys otherwise, at least 20 by Scott's estimate. He'd have made it decently far, but they would've overwhelmed him on his own. This way they stood a chance.
It was really nice of their opponents to be huddled against big chunks of metal; cars were wonderful conductors. Ororo made sure not to throw too much lightning at the one with the most of them still on their feet. The plan wasn't to kill them but to knock them out.
Scott grinned as the jolts either incapacitated or threw 8 of the attackers. She could handle that piece of things, so instead he focused on the lone gunmen that had her in their sights. One by one, he began firing precise optic blasts at each of them, taking out firearms, or even hands (though not permanently) as he did so.
They complemented each other well, Ororo noted as Scott went after the ones who would have compromised her airborne position. Keeping it made it easier to identify and prioritize targets. And after her trick with the car, the rest of their opponents were left with no choice but to move away from their cover, leaving them more open to Scott's attacks. Ororo, for her part, used a few focused bursts of wind to trip them up as they moved away in haste. The very same bursts of wind pushed the guns that had slipped from their grasps away from them.
She was very good, Scott mentally noted. Truthfully, they were very good. He noted that too. By now, a lot of the pre-programmed attackers had fled. It lowered the numbers, but it upped the difficulty of neutralizing those targets without resorting to lethal force.
Another few bullets whizzed past Ororo, who only just managed to avoid them. The remaining men were still partly hidden from Scott by the cars they were no longer leaning against. Ororo landed not far from her teammate. "Cyclops! I'll get the cars out of the way, you get the men?"
He nodded, and turned so that he'd be at the best angle once their assailants' cover was removed. He could just shoot through the cars, of course, but that amount of force would punch a serious hole through a human body, and they were trying to avoid that. "Ready when you are, Storm."
It took a few seconds to master enough wind to make it happen, and a couple more to find the right angle to pick up one car and go deposit it farther down the street. Then she moved on to the next car they used for cover.
He moved fluidly out of his own cover to hit the remaining assailants. He fired one optic blast after another, hard enough to break bone but not enough to punch a hole, carefully aiming for arms and hands, no where that might result in a mortal wound.
The last car was shoved out of the way instead of picked up, and Ororo was hoping it would be enough; she could push herself harder, but she was well aware of the migraine that would result in, and she'd rather avoid it.
It was close, and Scott rolled over to a better position. One hit, a second...the third moved just a split second too fast, and Scott's blast caught him in the chest rather than the shoulder as he'd intended. The guy screamed as he collapsed. The blast had undoubtedly been hard enough to crack, if not break, ribs or even a sternum. Shit.
Summers, you dumbfuck, that could have killed him.
"Are we clear?" Ororo asked, then took to the sky again to get a bird's eye view and make sure there were no remaining threats.
He didn't see or notice any motion as he straightened. "Clear," he called back.
"Clear," she confirmed after a moment longer, and landed back beside the computer terminal, to end the program and call up the list of exact damage dealt out to their opponents. "We did quite well."
"Not bad," Scott agreed, though he did hedge. "I hit at least one too hard, that could've been a death in some circumstances."
"The log says there's 80% chances they would've lived," Ororo told him, moving aside so he could have a look at the figures - all of them - for himself. "There were twenty of them, out for our blood and armed with guns. We did good."
Scott leaned in to see the stats for himself, as always aware and cautious not to intrude into Ororo's personal space. "Good," he finally pronounced.
"Good," Ororo confirmed, smiling slightly. "You want to do that obstacle course now?"
"Sure. Your choice this time," he replied.
* * *
Ororo handed Scott the drink he'd requested and grabbed a sparkling elderflower soda for herself before closing the fridge door. She'd never tasted that soda before coming to Xavier's, hadn't even known it existed, but now it was among her favorites. "That was fun." She smiled at him, happy but tired. She wasn't wiped yet, but much longer in the Danger Room and she might have been.
He smirked back. "Glad someone other than just me actually enjoys it in there."
"Have you seen how booked it is?" Ororo asked with raised eyebrows, amusement twisting her lips. "A lot of us enjoy it in there."
Scott chuckled. "Right. Guess it's just my usual partners in crime then." Which was to say, Drake and Worthington. Neither of whom seemed to hate it overly much, but both of them seemed to have ways they preferred to spend their time.
Ororo's smile stretched into a grin. "You need more enthusiastic partners in crime."
He grinned back. "They're good partners to have, but I doubt they'd mind if I added a couple more." After all, he liked Ororo, and they seemed to work pretty well together.
Ororo hadn't often seen him smile like that - when Jean wasn't around, that was. It did nothing to kill her own. "Is that an offer, Scott?"
"I can gild it if you want," he said, voice dry but expression taking any sting out of it.
Ororo wasn't sure what that word meant, but the context allowed her a fair guess, and she chuckled, then gestured invitingly. "Please. Go ahead."
Scott inclined his head, as though bowing. "Would you do me the honor of training with me on some kind of regular basis, smartass," he teased.
Ororo did nothing to hold back her laughter at the bow, and the invitation that followed, but she was perfectly serious, if smiling, as she replied, "The honor would be mine." She wasn't sure about honor, but she was working off of him.
He smirked. "So there you have it." Scott took a sip of his soda.
"Who are your other partners in crime?" she asked, leaning back against the counter. "I'm curious now."
"Drake and Worthington, usually," Scott said. "I didn't mean to suggest they aren't great or don't take it seriously. They do. I just think they have more of a life than I do."
"I wasn't judging them," Ororo assured him easily. "But I might start judging you, if you're saying you have no life." Dating Jean Grey constituted an amazing sort of life, after all.
Scott cocked an eyebrow. "I see you haven't read my yelp reviews. I'm not exactly known as the fun sort, you know?" He pointed out. And that was with good reason. In fact, very few people here saw him doing things that constituted true leisure, other than working on the cars which he guessed counted. Actually, he could probably count the number of people who'd seen him relax on one hand.
"Are you saying my roommate has bad taste?" Ororo asked, amusement playing on her lips.
He actually blushed. "No, ah, I didn't...that's..."
Ororo smiled at him. "That's what I thought."
Scott refrained from pointing out that he actually had no idea why on Earth Jean deigned to hang out with him, let alone had asked him out; he did not necessarily want to pull at that thread. "Well-played."
Ororo's smile confirmed that it had been, but after a beat, she moved on. "So. The Brotherhood are among us."
He sighed a little, and nodded. Having them there was kind of exhausting. Not because of anything the Brotherhood was doing specifically, but because it meant he had to be constantly on guard. Any single spark could light up this combustible mixture of personalities, and someone had to be ready with the fire extinguisher.
More personally, it was great having Alex around but it was also emotionally draining, since processing emotions was generally something Scott avoided and in this case absolutely couldn't.
"That bad?" Ororo asked with a purse of her lips.
"Not really," Scott admitted. "But us and them is kind of a combustible mixture, you know?"
"I'm surprised we haven't had any incidents yet," Ororo confirmed. "Pleasantly surprised."
"Same here," Scott admitted. Though, truth be told, he was more concerned about squabbles beginning with Xavier's students than with the Brotherhood. "What do you think of all of it?"
"I haven't talked to any of them," Ororo replied with a shake of her head. "Do they actually stand behind his declaration of war?" She assumed that he was asking what she made of them, really, and not of their presence here. It was right to help heal the man, and right to welcome them in the meantime. Maybe it could even turn to their advantage.
"Some of them might," Scott admitted. "Apparently he didn't consult with them first. Took them by surprise. But it's.....complicated." Given the whole Magneto-was-mindcontrolled piece he'd learned from Wanda.
"Loyalty?" Ororo asked. She knew the depth of loyalty a kid could feel for someone who had taken them off the street, even when that person was not a good person. She knew it intimately.
He nodded. "A lot of them. Two of them are his own kids, the others...well, they seem like they've had it rough." Even by his standards, which were supremely skewed. "Loyalty to him. Anger at people who hurt them."
Hell, Scott got it. It was just a distorted mirror version of his own loyalty to the Professor.
"It will be harder now, to try and make them see another path," Ororo confirmed with a slow nod. Now that they had been shot at.
He nodded. "Yeah. But...we have to try. They aren't all fanatics." Alex wasn't. Wanda wasn't. They just didn't see another option, for a host of different reasons.
"Not all?" Ororo echoed.
Scott shrugged a little. "Some of them don't use their given names, in favor of their mutant ones. I'm not sure if that makes them fanatics yet, but I don't take it as a good sign. And others of them are just...kids, with varying shred of trauma."
"That's probably the case of the potential fanatics, too," Ororo remarked.
"True." Scott admitted. "No one becomes a mutant supremacist overnight."
"I hope they keep taking classes here," Ororo said after a while. "Even after their leader recovers. It would not help your tension headaches," said with a small smile, poking fun at him, absolutely, "but it would be good for them."
"I hope so too. One of them," he didn't mention that it was his own brother, "mentioned wanting to be a scientist. It'd be a fucking travesty if they couldn't at least get a basic education."
"A few years ago, I would've fought with everything I had against anyone trying to force me to go to school," Ororo said honestly. "Not all of them will be willing, probably." But it would be nice for those who were to get the opportunity, and she had faith in Professor Xavier.
"Yeah, I don't think forcing them would work. Or even be right, necessarily." He was in no position to judge. He'd been hanging on the edge of dropout status himself before the professor, and it was only his sense of obligation that had gotten him to put in any effort his first few months. "But they should have the option."
Ororo nodded in agreement. "I wish I didn't have as much to catch up on."
"How much?" Scott asked, his voice was idle but he was curious. "I mean, if you don't mind my asking."
Ororo shrugged. "I'm in all the remedial classes." She hadn't been to school since she was five, but it wasn't as if she hadn't learned to read, write, and count, and more things beside.
"I was too. When I got here." He smiled a bit lopsidedly, "hell, I was the remedial classes."
She chuckled. "Yeah, at least I have some company."
"Which, if nothing else, makes it more interesting." Not the least because of the interesting mix of characters here at Mutant High.
"Very," Ororo confirmed. "However, it means I probably won't graduate until I'm 20."
Scott had to admit he had no idea what to do if and when he graduated, but he kept that to himself. Instead he shrugged, "two extra years of free room and board then. Could be worse."
"I don't think I'll want to leave, even when I'm done," Ororo said honestly. "This place means something." She wouldn't have come at all if she didn't believe that.
He nodded thoughtfully at that, since she knew he agreed. "What would you do?"
"Stay on and help mutant children however I can," Ororo answered honestly. "I'd need to talk to the Professor about it."
Scott sipped at his drink as he digested that. It was a good goal, a noble one. His fear was becoming a burden on the Professor, on his generosity. He wasn't really sure what he could do to help the school, once he graduated and didn't belong there as a student, but maybe Ororo had hit upon something. Maybe he'd ask.
Or maybe he'd be too chicken to do so. Only time would tell. "Got it."
"What about you?" Ororo asked, watching him openly. "Any plans for a life after Xavier's?"
He felt uncomfortable under her even and obvious evaluative gaze. "I've got a year." He hedged.
"You do," Ororo nodded, moving on without pushing. "You're graduating in two semesters?"
"Three," Scott corrected. "I'm only a junior." It would have been longer, but the upshot to having been the only student when he had first arrived was that they'd been able to move as quickly as he'd been able to learn.
A year and a half, then. Ororo nodded. "So you managed to catch up on everything you'd missed?" Or was he still behind; she had no idea how old he was.
"I spent a lot of time catching up when I first got here. I had school basically every day for as much as I could withstand." Scott explained. "I'm still not top of the class, but I'm at least closer to on time."
"That's impressive dedication," Ororo stated honestly. Perhaps she should think about doing something like that herself. Taking online classes after the in-person classes were done for the day.
He smirked self-deprecatingly. "I'm not sure it's dedication so much as not wanting to add anymore red flags to my student file. Besides," he shrugged a little, "the professor put a roof over my head and fed me. I figured the least I could do was try, right?"
"You're really uncomfortable with compliments," Ororo remarked, after taking the last sip of soda. It wasn't anything new, but it was worth saying. "Here's a veiled one, then. I'm looking forward to another run in the Danger Room with you. Let me know when?"
His cheeks pinked, but he studiously ignored that. "Absolutely."
"Great," she stated as she threw the empty can into the trash. "See you at dinner, maybe?"
"Sure. See you," Scott agreed.
Scott took a seat on the floor of the Danger Room, just to breathe for a moment before he figured out what he wanted to do next. He'd completed a lower-level obstacle course already, working on general fitness and some more refined control of his powers (which was to say, more refined control of his visor). It wasn't necessarily as action-packed as doing a more aggressive sim, but it definitely still had its uses.
The real question now was what he wanted to run next.
"Did it manage to wipe you out?"
The question came from the sound system, and Ororo waved at Scott when he looked up at the observation room window.
He smirked up at her as he waved back. "Not on your life," he replied. "You up there to watch, or do you want in?"
"Is that really a question?" Of course not; it was an offer, and one Ororo was eager to accept. "I'll be right down."
She disappeared from view, and walked into the Danger Room a few seconds later, dressed in her usual grey jeans and boots, along with a beige long-sleeved tee. She never dressed specifically for Danger Room sessions, because she saw no reason to. "Did you have anything specific in mind?"
He shook his head 'no.' "Was debating between oppositional scenarios or obstacle course. You have a preference?"
"The one, then the other?" Ororo offered with a small smile.
Scott gave her a pleased-looking smile. "Challenge accepted. You have any preference on the type of opposition?" He went over to the in-room controls so he could set it up. Unlike Ororo, he had changed his clothes just for the DR, from his jeans and t-shirt to a sweat-wicking shirt and some sweatpants. He glanced over at her. "Woods, urban environment...?"
"Urban is more challenging for me," Ororo answered, although the truth was, she didn't really care. She just wanted to train.
He hit a few buttons. "Got it." Scott set them for multiple assailants, urban environment, and set it to nighttime just for the additional challenge. "Let's do it."
Ororo's eyes went white as the scenery changed around them, and electricity crackled over her hands. Nighttime wasn't much of a problem when she turned her powers on; heat was one of the things her sight could pick up on, when she went white-eyed. "What's the scenario?" As in, what level of force should they apply.
Scott looked over, somewhat impressed. In the dark, his visor compensated for the dark-colored lens and red-wash of his own mutation, essentially giving him night vision. His visor glowed ominously. "Lethal attackers. If possible disable, if necessary, use appropriate force."
Ororo nodded. "Got it." A bullet whizzed past her, not missing her by much, and she whirled around to face her would-be killer even as she soared up into the sky. No reason to give them a target where they'd expect it. A strong gust of wind swept through their attackers, who had taken cover behind some parked vehicles, sending a few of them off balance.
Ororo's assailant had stayed steady on his feet, so Scott dialed back his force - hard enough to hurt but not enough to break a bone, yet - and hit him center mass before rolling out of the way to take cover behind a car. The multiple layers of metal would keep away most direct hits and the way it was parked would make it harder to flank him. He popped his head over the top to hit a guy's head with another blast, watch him drop, and then drop back into cover.
It was good Ororo was there too. It was just too many guys otherwise, at least 20 by Scott's estimate. He'd have made it decently far, but they would've overwhelmed him on his own. This way they stood a chance.
It was really nice of their opponents to be huddled against big chunks of metal; cars were wonderful conductors. Ororo made sure not to throw too much lightning at the one with the most of them still on their feet. The plan wasn't to kill them but to knock them out.
Scott grinned as the jolts either incapacitated or threw 8 of the attackers. She could handle that piece of things, so instead he focused on the lone gunmen that had her in their sights. One by one, he began firing precise optic blasts at each of them, taking out firearms, or even hands (though not permanently) as he did so.
They complemented each other well, Ororo noted as Scott went after the ones who would have compromised her airborne position. Keeping it made it easier to identify and prioritize targets. And after her trick with the car, the rest of their opponents were left with no choice but to move away from their cover, leaving them more open to Scott's attacks. Ororo, for her part, used a few focused bursts of wind to trip them up as they moved away in haste. The very same bursts of wind pushed the guns that had slipped from their grasps away from them.
She was very good, Scott mentally noted. Truthfully, they were very good. He noted that too. By now, a lot of the pre-programmed attackers had fled. It lowered the numbers, but it upped the difficulty of neutralizing those targets without resorting to lethal force.
Another few bullets whizzed past Ororo, who only just managed to avoid them. The remaining men were still partly hidden from Scott by the cars they were no longer leaning against. Ororo landed not far from her teammate. "Cyclops! I'll get the cars out of the way, you get the men?"
He nodded, and turned so that he'd be at the best angle once their assailants' cover was removed. He could just shoot through the cars, of course, but that amount of force would punch a serious hole through a human body, and they were trying to avoid that. "Ready when you are, Storm."
It took a few seconds to master enough wind to make it happen, and a couple more to find the right angle to pick up one car and go deposit it farther down the street. Then she moved on to the next car they used for cover.
He moved fluidly out of his own cover to hit the remaining assailants. He fired one optic blast after another, hard enough to break bone but not enough to punch a hole, carefully aiming for arms and hands, no where that might result in a mortal wound.
The last car was shoved out of the way instead of picked up, and Ororo was hoping it would be enough; she could push herself harder, but she was well aware of the migraine that would result in, and she'd rather avoid it.
It was close, and Scott rolled over to a better position. One hit, a second...the third moved just a split second too fast, and Scott's blast caught him in the chest rather than the shoulder as he'd intended. The guy screamed as he collapsed. The blast had undoubtedly been hard enough to crack, if not break, ribs or even a sternum. Shit.
Summers, you dumbfuck, that could have killed him.
"Are we clear?" Ororo asked, then took to the sky again to get a bird's eye view and make sure there were no remaining threats.
He didn't see or notice any motion as he straightened. "Clear," he called back.
"Clear," she confirmed after a moment longer, and landed back beside the computer terminal, to end the program and call up the list of exact damage dealt out to their opponents. "We did quite well."
"Not bad," Scott agreed, though he did hedge. "I hit at least one too hard, that could've been a death in some circumstances."
"The log says there's 80% chances they would've lived," Ororo told him, moving aside so he could have a look at the figures - all of them - for himself. "There were twenty of them, out for our blood and armed with guns. We did good."
Scott leaned in to see the stats for himself, as always aware and cautious not to intrude into Ororo's personal space. "Good," he finally pronounced.
"Good," Ororo confirmed, smiling slightly. "You want to do that obstacle course now?"
"Sure. Your choice this time," he replied.
Ororo handed Scott the drink he'd requested and grabbed a sparkling elderflower soda for herself before closing the fridge door. She'd never tasted that soda before coming to Xavier's, hadn't even known it existed, but now it was among her favorites. "That was fun." She smiled at him, happy but tired. She wasn't wiped yet, but much longer in the Danger Room and she might have been.
He smirked back. "Glad someone other than just me actually enjoys it in there."
"Have you seen how booked it is?" Ororo asked with raised eyebrows, amusement twisting her lips. "A lot of us enjoy it in there."
Scott chuckled. "Right. Guess it's just my usual partners in crime then." Which was to say, Drake and Worthington. Neither of whom seemed to hate it overly much, but both of them seemed to have ways they preferred to spend their time.
Ororo's smile stretched into a grin. "You need more enthusiastic partners in crime."
He grinned back. "They're good partners to have, but I doubt they'd mind if I added a couple more." After all, he liked Ororo, and they seemed to work pretty well together.
Ororo hadn't often seen him smile like that - when Jean wasn't around, that was. It did nothing to kill her own. "Is that an offer, Scott?"
"I can gild it if you want," he said, voice dry but expression taking any sting out of it.
Ororo wasn't sure what that word meant, but the context allowed her a fair guess, and she chuckled, then gestured invitingly. "Please. Go ahead."
Scott inclined his head, as though bowing. "Would you do me the honor of training with me on some kind of regular basis, smartass," he teased.
Ororo did nothing to hold back her laughter at the bow, and the invitation that followed, but she was perfectly serious, if smiling, as she replied, "The honor would be mine." She wasn't sure about honor, but she was working off of him.
He smirked. "So there you have it." Scott took a sip of his soda.
"Who are your other partners in crime?" she asked, leaning back against the counter. "I'm curious now."
"Drake and Worthington, usually," Scott said. "I didn't mean to suggest they aren't great or don't take it seriously. They do. I just think they have more of a life than I do."
"I wasn't judging them," Ororo assured him easily. "But I might start judging you, if you're saying you have no life." Dating Jean Grey constituted an amazing sort of life, after all.
Scott cocked an eyebrow. "I see you haven't read my yelp reviews. I'm not exactly known as the fun sort, you know?" He pointed out. And that was with good reason. In fact, very few people here saw him doing things that constituted true leisure, other than working on the cars which he guessed counted. Actually, he could probably count the number of people who'd seen him relax on one hand.
"Are you saying my roommate has bad taste?" Ororo asked, amusement playing on her lips.
He actually blushed. "No, ah, I didn't...that's..."
Ororo smiled at him. "That's what I thought."
Scott refrained from pointing out that he actually had no idea why on Earth Jean deigned to hang out with him, let alone had asked him out; he did not necessarily want to pull at that thread. "Well-played."
Ororo's smile confirmed that it had been, but after a beat, she moved on. "So. The Brotherhood are among us."
He sighed a little, and nodded. Having them there was kind of exhausting. Not because of anything the Brotherhood was doing specifically, but because it meant he had to be constantly on guard. Any single spark could light up this combustible mixture of personalities, and someone had to be ready with the fire extinguisher.
More personally, it was great having Alex around but it was also emotionally draining, since processing emotions was generally something Scott avoided and in this case absolutely couldn't.
"That bad?" Ororo asked with a purse of her lips.
"Not really," Scott admitted. "But us and them is kind of a combustible mixture, you know?"
"I'm surprised we haven't had any incidents yet," Ororo confirmed. "Pleasantly surprised."
"Same here," Scott admitted. Though, truth be told, he was more concerned about squabbles beginning with Xavier's students than with the Brotherhood. "What do you think of all of it?"
"I haven't talked to any of them," Ororo replied with a shake of her head. "Do they actually stand behind his declaration of war?" She assumed that he was asking what she made of them, really, and not of their presence here. It was right to help heal the man, and right to welcome them in the meantime. Maybe it could even turn to their advantage.
"Some of them might," Scott admitted. "Apparently he didn't consult with them first. Took them by surprise. But it's.....complicated." Given the whole Magneto-was-mindcontrolled piece he'd learned from Wanda.
"Loyalty?" Ororo asked. She knew the depth of loyalty a kid could feel for someone who had taken them off the street, even when that person was not a good person. She knew it intimately.
He nodded. "A lot of them. Two of them are his own kids, the others...well, they seem like they've had it rough." Even by his standards, which were supremely skewed. "Loyalty to him. Anger at people who hurt them."
Hell, Scott got it. It was just a distorted mirror version of his own loyalty to the Professor.
"It will be harder now, to try and make them see another path," Ororo confirmed with a slow nod. Now that they had been shot at.
He nodded. "Yeah. But...we have to try. They aren't all fanatics." Alex wasn't. Wanda wasn't. They just didn't see another option, for a host of different reasons.
"Not all?" Ororo echoed.
Scott shrugged a little. "Some of them don't use their given names, in favor of their mutant ones. I'm not sure if that makes them fanatics yet, but I don't take it as a good sign. And others of them are just...kids, with varying shred of trauma."
"That's probably the case of the potential fanatics, too," Ororo remarked.
"True." Scott admitted. "No one becomes a mutant supremacist overnight."
"I hope they keep taking classes here," Ororo said after a while. "Even after their leader recovers. It would not help your tension headaches," said with a small smile, poking fun at him, absolutely, "but it would be good for them."
"I hope so too. One of them," he didn't mention that it was his own brother, "mentioned wanting to be a scientist. It'd be a fucking travesty if they couldn't at least get a basic education."
"A few years ago, I would've fought with everything I had against anyone trying to force me to go to school," Ororo said honestly. "Not all of them will be willing, probably." But it would be nice for those who were to get the opportunity, and she had faith in Professor Xavier.
"Yeah, I don't think forcing them would work. Or even be right, necessarily." He was in no position to judge. He'd been hanging on the edge of dropout status himself before the professor, and it was only his sense of obligation that had gotten him to put in any effort his first few months. "But they should have the option."
Ororo nodded in agreement. "I wish I didn't have as much to catch up on."
"How much?" Scott asked, his voice was idle but he was curious. "I mean, if you don't mind my asking."
Ororo shrugged. "I'm in all the remedial classes." She hadn't been to school since she was five, but it wasn't as if she hadn't learned to read, write, and count, and more things beside.
"I was too. When I got here." He smiled a bit lopsidedly, "hell, I was the remedial classes."
She chuckled. "Yeah, at least I have some company."
"Which, if nothing else, makes it more interesting." Not the least because of the interesting mix of characters here at Mutant High.
"Very," Ororo confirmed. "However, it means I probably won't graduate until I'm 20."
Scott had to admit he had no idea what to do if and when he graduated, but he kept that to himself. Instead he shrugged, "two extra years of free room and board then. Could be worse."
"I don't think I'll want to leave, even when I'm done," Ororo said honestly. "This place means something." She wouldn't have come at all if she didn't believe that.
He nodded thoughtfully at that, since she knew he agreed. "What would you do?"
"Stay on and help mutant children however I can," Ororo answered honestly. "I'd need to talk to the Professor about it."
Scott sipped at his drink as he digested that. It was a good goal, a noble one. His fear was becoming a burden on the Professor, on his generosity. He wasn't really sure what he could do to help the school, once he graduated and didn't belong there as a student, but maybe Ororo had hit upon something. Maybe he'd ask.
Or maybe he'd be too chicken to do so. Only time would tell. "Got it."
"What about you?" Ororo asked, watching him openly. "Any plans for a life after Xavier's?"
He felt uncomfortable under her even and obvious evaluative gaze. "I've got a year." He hedged.
"You do," Ororo nodded, moving on without pushing. "You're graduating in two semesters?"
"Three," Scott corrected. "I'm only a junior." It would have been longer, but the upshot to having been the only student when he had first arrived was that they'd been able to move as quickly as he'd been able to learn.
A year and a half, then. Ororo nodded. "So you managed to catch up on everything you'd missed?" Or was he still behind; she had no idea how old he was.
"I spent a lot of time catching up when I first got here. I had school basically every day for as much as I could withstand." Scott explained. "I'm still not top of the class, but I'm at least closer to on time."
"That's impressive dedication," Ororo stated honestly. Perhaps she should think about doing something like that herself. Taking online classes after the in-person classes were done for the day.
He smirked self-deprecatingly. "I'm not sure it's dedication so much as not wanting to add anymore red flags to my student file. Besides," he shrugged a little, "the professor put a roof over my head and fed me. I figured the least I could do was try, right?"
"You're really uncomfortable with compliments," Ororo remarked, after taking the last sip of soda. It wasn't anything new, but it was worth saying. "Here's a veiled one, then. I'm looking forward to another run in the Danger Room with you. Let me know when?"
His cheeks pinked, but he studiously ignored that. "Absolutely."
"Great," she stated as she threw the empty can into the trash. "See you at dinner, maybe?"
"Sure. See you," Scott agreed.
