First Contact (Part Five)

Three days. That was all the time we had been gone for. With all of the blacking out and coming to, I thought it would have been longer, but then again, Ruth looked healthier than I thought she would have if she had been held captive for any real extended period of time.

No one asked me what happened. Not Miss Pryde, or any of the X-Men who came to get us and take us home. That was just fine. I didn't want to talk about it. And I was pretty sure Miss Frost read my mind to get the entire rundown from my perspective anyway.

Getting kidnapped for a stretch of time wasn't enough to get me out of classes in a school of would-be superheroes, so I was back behind a desk soon enough.

Eddie and Hisako knew something had been up, but they were the only ones. As far as the rest of the student body that was even aware of me went, I had just been out of commission for a few days.

Ruth was a little shaken up for a while after we got back. She sort of clung to me for a bit, but I didn't have any problems with it. Sure, she probably saw bad things happen a lot in her premonitions, but dealing with it firsthand wasn't the same thing. I told her I would help, even if I had no idea how.

The least I could do was pick up where I left off, walking her to the classes that I could. Hey, the sooner we went back to doing things like normal, the sooner we could put all of that unpleasantness behind us.

I dropped Ruth off for one of her early classes and went my own way, moving past students in the hall on the way to my own. As I got close to where I was going, I saw someone out of place waiting outside by the door, greeting students in-passing with a smile as they entered.

It was a tall man with brown hair cut in a way that you'd see on a Boy Scout, but the most noticeable thing about him was the shiny red sunglasses covering his eyes.

Scott Summers, aka Cyclops. The guy who was basically in charge of the place, alongside Miss Frost.

But it didn't matter any to me. I figured he might have been there to sub for our class. That sort of thing wasn't weird to me. I saw it all the time at my old school, but then, that was a public school and not one of the particularly good ones.

When he saw me, he started heading my way. I looked around to see if there was someone else nearby he might have been waiting for, but he walked right up to me, "Bellamy," Okay, again with people knowing my name without me introducing myself first. Still annoying, "Do you mind if we talk for a moment? You're excused from your class."

Not that I hated class, but an excuse to not go was good enough for me. Besides, when the guy who ran the place asked to have a conversation with you, no wasn't really an answer, "Sure."

I had never spoken to Mister Summers before. Between leading the X-Men, having his own student squad, and being co-headmaster of the school, the guy was way too busy to see to every student that came through the gates. That was what having a staff was for.

Then again, he seemed pretty hands-on in some cases. I remembered seeing him at Coney Island just before I blacked out. The visor he wore on his face was sort of distinctive. As one of the people who saw to the day-to-day running of the school, he probably had to come and see the students that got kidnapped at least once.

...You know, to at least make sure no one had been brainwashed. That was a thing that happened back then, wasn't it?

We walked silently around the school, and I have to say, the guy had quite a presence about him. The way he carried himself just screamed 'leader'. A strict, take no bullshit kind of person. More like a military commander in some respects than an educator.

His presence probably also had a lot to do with the fact that if he took his sunglasses off, he could rip a segment of the school apart in a matter of seconds

Eventually we made it outside, away from most of the nosier students who would take whatever opportunity to eavesdrop for some gossip. That was when he spoke to me, "It's good to see you're up and around after what happened," He said, "How are you doing?"

I reached up to my shoulder and massaged it at the reminder that not too long ago, I'd been thoroughly pummeled, "I don't feel bad. Just kind of sore, still. Dr. McCoy says when I'm hurt bad enough, my body takes as much of my energy as I need and tries to make me shut down to fix whatever's wrong with me."

There had been battery of injuries I'd been saddled with after the fight, according to what he'd told me when I woke up. I didn't want to know. I'd felt things pop and tear when Pierce had been slamming me around. Ignorance was bliss, because I was much happier being unaware of how wrecked I'd been.

I scratched at my arms, as though I could still feel the wires that had been connected to them for days, "I didn't expect any of this to be easy, but... I mean, is it always going to be that way?"

There was a fine line between reassuring your students that everything was going to be okay, and making sure that they would be prepared for all of the ugly realities that they would be likely to face somewhere down the line. I'd already dealt with it once and came out on the other side with all of my fingers and toes attached. There wasn't a reason to lie to me and say that it wouldn't happen again.

We'd walked far enough behind campus where the lake was clear to see. Mister Summers stopped and took a look at the water. It was gorgeous; all blue and shimmering. I wondered if he saw everything in red, either because of his powers or because of what he always had to wear over his eyes.

He gave me an answer without giving me an answer, "Things like this are why we have the students train in squads. Even so, the program is designed to ease you into the dangers that come with this life," What went unsaid, but was implied: it was going to happen again. "For what it's worth, you did well."

I sat down on the grass and let out a scoff. To think, that anything I did would have really mattered in the long run if I had made just one decision differently, "It was Saberwolf. We'd have been killed without him," I commented, laying back and staring up at the sky, "I might not have even gotten to Ruth if I hadn't sprung him first."

I would never forget that. I couldn't even budge Pierce. He took my best shot again and again, and he barely even flinched. If that stupid wolf-bot had never stepped in, I would have been a corpse laying up in the medical wing's morgue or in a freezer underground somewhere, waiting on the Reavers to study what was left of me.

Fighting on my own, I never had a chance. The only reason things went as well as they did was because when it came down to it, I hadn't been alone.

"You still had the courage to do something," He said, "It would have been easy to wait for a rescue that might not have come in time if you hadn't managed to get away."

That sort of crap wasn't going to work on me that easily. I wasn't some cynical prick, but I was still a teenager. If I thought you were patronizing me, I wasn't going to just accept what you were telling me at face value.

"I'm not brave," I shut my eyes and basked in the comfortable warmth of the sunlight, "...I was scared to death the whole time."

If I were a real X-Man, I would have done something sooner. If I were good enough, Ruth wouldn't have been in any kind of danger to begin with. It didn't even involve her. If I were a real hero, I wouldn't have been scared at all.

Mister Summers let out an amused sound, "It says a lot that you're willing to admit that," He told me, "I'll just leave you with this, Bellamy. Courage isn't never being afraid. Courage is being absolutely terrified, but choosing to act anyway."

I kept my eyes shut and let him walk away. It did feel good to be recognized, even if it was just for saving my own ass. I didn't need it, but it would have been a lie to say that hearing it from the guy who called the shots around school didn't give me a little ego boost.

That didn't mean I still didn't have a lot to think about, though. Mister Summers' departure left me by myself at the lake with a little time to relax outside of class and a lot to think about.

What kind of person was I? And what kind of X-Man did I want to be?