บท 6: A Talk, Some Questions And A Break Down Of Communications
"So, go ahead, ask what you want to know," I gave a solid stare at the group opposite me, "What you wanted to know so much you were willing to break into someone's mind, to find out the answers," I gave a sharp poke at them again and Scott went to step forward, lifting his hand to his sunglasses but Jean stopped him with a hand on his chest.
"Stop it, Scott--" she said, trying to calm him down, but I added fuel to the fire.
Smirking, I spoke up, "Bring it on, lover boy. Give me your best shot," I taunted him and Scott grit his teeth in anger, the cogs clinking along in his head trying to decide whether he should react to the taunt or listen to Jean.
Sadly he chose to listen to Jean as his hand dropped, stepping back as he kicked the dirt and threw up a small cloud of dirt. Meanwhile, Jean looked back to me with an annoyed look, while I returned it with an innocent smile. Probably sensing how truly annoyed I was, she took a step forward with her hands raised.
"I know how upset you are. And I'm sorry for that," she spoke with an apologetic tone, seeming genuinely sorry for what she'd done - but a simple sorry doesn't fix a problem. Oblivious to my thoughts, she carried on, "But you need to understand that--"
"I understand exactly why you did what you did," I interrupted her, speaking with a neutral tone before a smirk slowly stretched over my face, "If I were an evil nonhuman, it could mean casualties. If you guys knew there was a threat and didn't react and it resulted in the loss of someone's life? Well, I'm betting you'd all feel a decent amount of guilt and regret for not acting," I held up a finger, like I was lecturing about something, "Your thought process was like this: While breaking into someone's mind is wrong, if it can save people, it's a necessary evil. Kinda like 'the means of the many outweigh the needs of the few'. Just with telepathy involved," I shrugged and Jean looked hopefully at me.
"Then you understand why I had to do it--" she was once again interrupted by me, but my tone was audibly angry at this point.
Rolling my eyes, my anger flared up somewhat as I spoke, "Just because I understand your thought process doesn't mean I agree with your methods, redhead. Call me a hopeless optimist, but you could've tried to speak to me, you know? A few simple questions could've gained you the information you want - and if you didn't trust the information? Then you put some surveillance on me to see if I'm really not a threat. Only as a last resort do you try and pry into someone's mind!" I bellowed, trying to get across to Jean just how infuriating the thought of someone being in my mind was. How much it defied my rights as a sentient being.
And thankfully we were a decent way away from any other living being so no one heard me. A far-end of the school that was scheduled for deconstruction was where we were, for reference. I'd already scouted the location with my senses, so I knew for definite no one was here.
Anyway, Jean, under my verbal reprimand, showed actual remorse and guilt as she backed up...which made me feel like it was more of a group census than her own decision to pry into my mind.
Which didn't make it better, by the way. It just spread the blame a bit thinner over the others of the group.
Nevertheless, Jean still tried to keep things amicable and calm as she forced a smile, "Then...can we ask you questions for the things we need to know?" she asked, hopeful she hadn't messed up her only way of finding out. Or at least that's what I felt she was feeling.
I'm not an Empath. Just decent at reading people's expressions and micro-expressions.
"...Sure. Just get it over with already, okay? I'd rather not have to deal with you guys for longer than I have to," when I said this, it sounded like I was referring to all of them, but when I said it, I was looking directly at Scott who just grit his teeth even harder as he got my meaning. I'm not trying to taunt him into attacking me - I just genuinely don't like him all that much. Just based off of first impressions, he's a prick.
Jean also picked up this meaning but brushed it under the rug as she asked her first question, "What are you?"
Shrugging, I answered concisely, "I don't know. Definitely part-human, though," I said before continuing when I saw the confusion on Jean's face at my certainty of being at least half-human, "My Aunt's twin sister is my mom. And my Aunt is human, so that makes my mom human. If I had to guess, my dad's the alien of the family," I spoke with a thoughtful look before shaking it my head, "Any other questions?"
"I know this is going to sound stupid...but why are you here? Can you prove that you were born on Earth?" she asked with yet another apologetic smile.
"Sure," I nodded before closing my eyes. I imagined a room. A blank white room. It was 5 meters by 5 meters and in the middle of the room, there was a TV set up. On said TV, memories began playing but I paused it as I began slowing down my thought speed for this specific area of my mind, "You can come into my mind now, red. I've slowed down and opened up a single place. It should be the only place you can get into," I spoke up in person and a second later, Jean appeared in the room as some sort of mental construction of herself.
She looked around in wonder before bending down and touching the metallic floor, "Your mental defenses are incredible...?" she spoke in both my mind and in real life, while I just spoke in my mind.
"Alex. My name's Alex Parker. And yours?" I decided it was okay to open up a bit of a back-and-forth with Jean as she was the person I had to prove my innocence to...God, just saying that pisses me off a little. I mean, I didn't ask to be born as a half-alien--Well, I don't think I did, anyway.
"Jean Grey," she answered with a beautiful smile, "I know what I did was wrong...so I'm sorry, Alex. I hope we can get along better in the future."
I just gave a nonchalant hum in response, knowing that a simple sorry wasn't going to make me forget the attempted mind rape. Even if it was coming from a pretty face like Jean's. It just goes against my principles to forgive so easily, especially against something so egregious.
Moving the subject on, the TV hummed to life as I un-paused the memories.
It showed me...coming out of my mother. Quite a grim memory to have, but I remember it. I was seemingly reincarnated into this body when I was on Aunt May's doorstep but I still had access to all the memories before that and my brain was incredibly retentive - even as a newborn.
"This is me being born," I answered and Jean watched as she tried not to wince at the sight. Time sped up in the video and a beautiful brunette was holding me and I was looking up at her as she smiled down at me with an incredible amount of love. The woman, my mom, spoke up, saying what my name was, "This was me being named by her," the video sped up once again and finally got to a point where my mom put me down outside May's apartment door, tears streaming down her face, "And this is when my mom abandoned me at my Aunt's apartment."
Jean watched it all before she spoke up with a sad tone to her voice, "I'm...I'm so sorry I made you relive these memories, Alex..." she apologized again and I had to restrain a groan - this girl really likes apologizing, huh?
"It's okay, Jean. I've had a while to think about it - besides, I still have my loving Aunt and Uncle, so I'm not exactly without parental figures," I calmly answered her, giving the truth but also leaving out the fact that I wasn't exactly a normal kid. I'd already had parents and their love in my previous life and even if the memories were patchy, it meant I wasn't exactly hit with the full force of my parents abandoning me and passing me off to relatives.
That didn't mean I don't love my current family. Just means I have a bit more mental fortitude to stuff like family abandoning me or whatever.
Jean seemed like she was about to back out of my mind, but I tugged on the avatar she was using, keeping her here. She turned to look around, confused but not able to see me because I hadn't made an avatar of my own but I soon spoke up to clear up said confusion, "Stay here. I'll get you some more evidence so you can plead for my innocence," my voice was dripping with sarcasm as the TV flickered to different scene: an alleyway.
Jean looked at the screen with scrunched brows, "What's this...?"
"Me saving someone's life," I answered as the memory showed me flashing into an alleyway and saving a woman and a man from being beat to death, and the woman from being sexually assaulted while they beat her. Jean covered her mouth with a hand, stopping a gasp.
"No, sorry, I'm okay," she spoke, clearly not to me but to the others who were probably alarmed by her gasp. To make it easier for her, I conjured up an avatar of myself in my mind, sitting a few feet away from her on a simple deck chair. Jean turned away from the TV showing me quickly knocking out and tying up the goons assaulting the couple and toward my avatar, "Alex...I hate to sound like a broken record but I truly do apologize--"
"Then don't sound like a broken record, red," I chuckled before standing, "I've already heard your apologies and the jury's still out. If you do want to make it up to me somehow, can you answer two questions for me?" I gave a smile and Jean instantly nodded in agreement, "Then, did you personally decide to pry into my mind or was it a group decision?"
She winced at the question before answering through her avatar only, "...It was a group decision."
"Good to know it wasn't just you, red," I gave a chuckle before getting a bit closer to her before gesturing to outside the box and at the real world, "Say, you with that sunglasses guy out there? Like, boyfriend-girlfriend type of deal?"
Jean instantly blushed at the question before she looked somewhat frustrated with the question, "Is that all you want me to answer?" she asked and I nodded with a wide smile, "Then no, we're not," just as she finished answering me, she disappeared from the room and withdrew from my mind. Oof. Poor Scott...not even a single second of hesitation.
Scraping the room and the TV, my thought process in that area automatically sped up to the normal superhuman speed and matched the rest of my mind.
Opening my eyes, I chuckled before I looked to Jean, "You might want to use that telepathy to keep people away from us for a while," I said and despite her confusion, I still went forward with what I planned to do ever since I knew the mind-reading thing was a group effort.
What did I plan to do? Discipline the group, obviously.
Flashing forward quicker than any of them could react, I lifted a hand and grabbed Scott's face before picking him up and slamming him backward and down into the ground.
Scott gave out a pained cry before his consciousness slipped from him.
"Alex?! What are you doing?!" Jean gave a confused shout and I turned to her, smirking as I stood back up and over the unconscious Scott.
"I said the jury was out, Jean," I said, my smile growing, "And it came back saying you guys need a bit of punishment. Not everything can be solved with apologies. Some disciplinary action needs to be taken," I said before clarifying, "You already got the backlash of trying to get into my head. The rest can't get away scot free either."
I felt something behind me and I side-stepped just as Rogue tried to get an ungloved hand on me. She tripped as she wasn't ready for me to just disappear and her eyes went wide as I brought my hands out wide before I brought them together, slamming them together with a decent bit of strength.
The resulting clap was incredibly loud and sent out a shockwave that blew Rogue away like a ragdoll though she was quickly caught by Laura who dived out of nowhere, catching the brunette while simultaneously avoiding touching her bare skin and ungloved hands.
Rogue's ears were bleeding, no doubt because of burst eardrums and her eyes looked dizzy and out of focus. Laura, realizing Rogue was out of it due to bodily injuries, grabbed Rogue's arm and let her hand touch her bare skin. This allowed Rogue to copy Laura's healing factor but even then the efficacy seemed much lower than what I imagined Laura's healing factor would have.
Maybe Rogue's powers don't copy the power perfectly in this reality? Huh. Food for thought, I guess.
"Hey red?" I called out to Jean, "You should get on stopping people from coming here. That shockwave alerted a few people," I spoke with a smile as I stepped back and dodged a massive metal arm as it was rushing toward my head before I moved. "Oh-ho, big guy, you confident in your brawling ability? I just created a shockwave with a casual clap, you know?" I taunted Colossus, or Piotr (Russian version of Peter, I guess?), and lifted my hands up in a basic fighting stance.
Piotr didn't care for my taunt as his massive frame explosively burst forth. His frame had swelled and grew in size from earlier, no doubt because of his mutant power, and was no longer just 6'6" - he was around 7'0" tall by now and probably much, much heavier.
Despite being able to easily react to his speed and dodge any of his attacks, I decided to take the chance to see how I measured up to a decent bruiser from Marvel.
I also wanted to take the chance to cut loose, if only a little.
Piotr threw an overhand right, using his massive height and reach advantage to try and keep my at distance but it didn't really matter as I threw out a punch to meet his own. The colliding fists couldn't be any different - it looked like a true representation of David vs Goliath, and from looks alone, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that the fist of metal would beat the fist of flesh.
But looks ain't everything, you know?
When the two fists collided, it wasn't the sound of metal hitting flesh. No. It was the sound of metal hitting harder metal. Piotr's face twisted in pain as he took a few steps back, his arm blasted back from the force of my punch. I smiled, my heart thumping in my ears as I stepped forward and slammed a punch into Piotr's stomach.
The metal teen's stomach crunch and groaned inward, his metallic body not being able to withstand the pressure of my punch.
But despite this, he held on and kept his feet on the ground which was a respectable feat.
Even if he was sent back a few feet, displacing the ground beneath him as he tried to forcibly stop the momentum of my punch.
His face was morphed in pain but a second later, it was replaced by a mask of determination as he charged forth, obviously trying to go for some sort of grapple. At that point, it all made sense - Jean, while stopping people from coming here by misdirecting them with her telepathy, was also linking her teammate's minds. Piotr was going to try and hold me down or at least hold me still so Rogue and Laura could make sure I'm subdued properly.
I could easily ruin their plan. Knocking out Piotr after having figured out the ultimate compressive and tensile strength of his body would be child's play and without their main tank, Rogue and Laura would be fresh out of luck.
Jean couldn't interfere because linking her teammates and holding off anyone near was spreading her thin. So they'd be beat easily if I just dropped Piotr.
...But where'd the fun in that be? I'll engage in the grapple. If it gets to the point where I'm actually in danger of losing, I can just get a little serious. My current display is pretty much me casually play fighting. If I was being serious, I'd have blasted a hole through Piotr's stomach with my earlier punch.
So, smiling, I met Piotr's charge and locked hands with him as he held onto my hands with all his might, his metallic muscles bulging as he tried to push me away and down. I met his strength with my own and I squeezed my hands into his, crunching the metal ever so slightly and causing him a degree of pain as he gasped. I quickly took the upper hand, bending his hands back and pushing him down so he could avoid his arms snapping.
I pushed him down until he was on his knees and his previous height advantage was entirely gone, "Sorry, bud, but you picked the wrong opponent to have a contest of strength with," I gave him a somewhat sorry smile before the facial feature turned to a smirk, "Really? A sneak attack? So cliche," I complained overdramatically as I lifted myself up, flying upward while still pressuring Piotr into the ground.
Where I'd just been, Laura and Rogue both attacked. Laura with a lethal flurry of slashes and Rogue going for where my wrist had been.
The general plan behind the attack probably being that I'd focus more on blocking or dodging Laura's attacks that it'd allow Rogue to grab my wrist and drain my powers/energy, subduing me and stopping this fight. Well, it was more like a one-sided beatdown, but to each their own.
Continuing with my flight, I flipped myself mid-air and landed behind Piotr before I hefted my arms upward, still holding his hands in a death grip. Holding him up, I brought him back down in front of me with a small but devastating amount of strength.
Piotr's metal frame hit the ground and the ground below me and him cracked and frayed, fissures opening up all around us as the ground shook itself apart. The ground even collapsed downward a few feet, leaving a broken crater around us that was a few meters in diameter. Piotr, was completely knocked out, his metal form disappearing as his body shrunk back down to it's normal size.
Letting go of the unconscious teen, I turned around and flashed to the edge of the crater, looking at Rogue and Laura, the former looking at me with actual terror in her eyes.
Even the previously cool and collect Laura looked at me with what I could only see as primal fear in her eyes.
As I took a step forward, Jean gave a pleading shout, "Alex, please, just stop! These two didn't vote yes in the group decision earlier...you've proved your point, okay?! I've stopped and redirected everyone who heard the noise, so just leave. Please."
I turned to look at the redhead and she genuinely had teary eyes and her worry for her teammates was very evident.
Looking at her, I couldn't really see if she was lying or not about them voting 'no' but I could see she was very close to some sort of outburst and I'd rather not be the focus of whatever that outburst produces. It could just be her normal telekinesis assaulting me but it could also be the fucking Phoenix force and I'd be pretty screwed if that happened. Not dead, no, but probably pretty injured.
So...I held my hands up in surrender, "Sorry to upset you so much, red. Just keep this in mind next time you start messing with people's heads, okay?" I asked before flashing away and back to school. I was probably already late but what did it matter? Using even a fraction of my strength and being able to go up against a superhuman opponent was enough to put me in a good mood and some teacher reprimanding me wouldn't take me out of the feel-good mood I was currently in. I guess whatever I am really is pretty warlike and aggressive, huh? To like fights this much, anyway. Or maybe that's just how I am and I never knew it?
Well, thoughts for another day, I guess.
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Stan_Wheeler
Stan_Wheeler So, a cathartic beatdown. But it'll have real consequences. A visit from the more experienced X-Men, probably.
Don't worry, though, the X-Men have nothing to do with SHIELD in this world. The two of them don't mesh well together - SHIELD's way of doing things would probably rub Charles Xavier (McAvoy version) the wrong way, so communication between the two would be nonexistent. I'd also bargain there's a few Anti-Mutant people in SHIELD or on the World Council (whatever it's called; the people who fund SHIELD) so their relationship would be pretty negative. So his identity/powers won't get to SHIELD.
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