Just Because You're Paranoid (Part Four)

Computer programming was absolutely not my jam. Not in any way, shape, or form. I only learned the basics of it because of class, and I'd never had to use it before to do anything else. I had never wanted to. It was tedious and unfulfilling. In this case, I had to in order to help Miss Pryde redo everything for the Danger Room.

I don't know how she got permission from Cyclops, because I know full well she didn't go anywhere near Miss Frost. The moment she asked that woman for something, I was going to find a way to go buy a lottery ticket, because anything was possible.

In the meantime, people were still using the Danger Room, myself included. I rested with the confidence that the computer controlling it all wouldn't pull anything until it had its ducks in a row to make its strike count.

After classes and anything else I had planned in my official schedule, like hand-to-hand training, or squad practice, I met up with Miss Pryde to help her with what needed to be done.

My weekdays were full-up, at least in the daytime. And my weekends had a purpose to them for a little while. It was good for me, because it left me less time to slack off, making it easier to entertain myself at night when I couldn't sleep.

On one Friday afternoon, I was free and clear of regular activities and killing time before I headed off to help Miss Pryde again. I spent my time hanging out under a tree, leaning against Saberwolf.

Apparently he did that kind of thing all the time. Why an A.I. enjoyed lazing around like a dog, I didn't know.

"You're really not comfortable, Wolf," I told him out of the blue. His metal frame was against the back of my head as I surfed the web on my phone.

"My exoskeleton was designed for durability in combat. Not for relaxation," Wolf replied, "Are you not busy today?"

"I will be," I told him, turning my head toward him and elbowing him on the side, "What? You miss me when I'm gone or something?"

"You are the only person that I know well enough to be around without frightening them," He explained.

It was a fair point. Eddie was clearly wary of him. Hisako, not as much, but it was still there. He still got looks from others around the school as well. Just wait until they got q load of the weapons.

"You know you can go hang out with Ruthie, right?" I told him, trying to help with a fix, "She likes you as much as I do."

Wolf's head lifted off of the grass as though it had just occurred to him, "That... is an acceptable solution."

I basked in the superior glow of my teenage problem solving skills, "I'm here to help. Just be patient with her it'll take some time to figure out what she's talking about."

"How long?"

"I'm not sure," I grumbled, turning mu attention back to my phone, "I'll let you know when I figure her out myself."

A green glow surrounded my phone and I immediately lifted my hand to take aim. There was only one person I knew with telekinesis, and I was pointed in the right direction too. Bonus points for me.

My phone hovered in the air where I had been holding it. I wasn't even looking at it. I was staring at Julian Keller, walking with at least two members of his team, Santo and the red-haired girl with silver skin, another kid covered from nearly head-to-toe in clearly synthetic clothes, and another kid with lizard-like traits. If he was going to fuck with me, he could at least be smart enough to do it from the center of his crew where I couldn't pick him off at will.

"If you wouldn't mind, could you give that back, please," I asked pleasantly. 'Or I'll shoot you in the face again,' was the unsaid threat that came with the glowing skin of my fist, "I wasn't done with it."

Just like I wasn't done with my apple. Never forget the apple. I hadn't had another one that had tasted as good ever since.

Julian slowly put his hands down and the phone dropped into my waiting hand, safe and sound, "Just thought I'd grace you with my presence."

"I'm so blessed," I deadpanned before nodding to the rest of his team, "What's up, people who hate me by association?"

That wasn't fair. Not everyone on the Hellions were jerks. Just… half of them. Yeah. Half was a good number.

The lizard kid raised his hand, "I'm not on his team, so I don't hate you. I think you blasting him is Hi-Larious."

Julian turned and looked at him in offense, "Vic! I thought we were friends!"

The lizard kid took it in stride, letting Julian's indignation slide off like water, "We are. And as your friend, I've wanted to slug you more than a few times myself," He pointed his thumb over at me, "I'm pretty sure this guy hadn't built up as much of a tolerance for your certain kind of personality yet."

"He was hopped up on light juice, apparently," The silver girl recalled sternly, though I know I saw a hint of a smile appear on her face for a split-second, "You are an acquired taste though, Julian."

I waved off the callback to what I told her when I first met most of the Hellions, "I've given more terrible excuses that had less truth to them for worse things," I said, "Can we get past that, please? I didn't even get your name last time because I was so sure you all wanted to strangle me."

She tried to keep up a serious image, but eventually relented with a sigh, "Alright. Fair enough. I'm Cessily," She pointed to the emo-looking kid and then to the green lizard dude, "These two are Kevin and Victor."

Saberwolf had perked up and taken notice while we had all been talking and let his presence finally be known, "Bellamy, I still have relatively little communication experience with humans. My ability to read social situation not explicitly expressed by speech is lacking, but I understand that group positioning and body language are also telling indicators. Are these people hostile to you?"

I gave Wolf an odd look. The last thing I needed was for him to go into combat mode, or whatever the fuck he called whenever his eye panels glowed red and he started fighting, "No," I paused and looked at Julian and Santo, "…Err, maybe one or two. We'll see. Just, don't worry about it."

Julian let out a laugh and walked towards us, turning his nose up at us, "Teaching your dog tricks? That's adorable."

Wolf let out an annoyed robotic growl that only I was close enough to hear, "Yeah. He's got a few pretty good ones," I asked, getting off of him to let him stand up, "Wolf, why don't you show him how you shake?"

He lifted his front paw as Julian smirked and reached out a hand. As he got closer, Wolf let his retractable blade claws jut out. Julian jumped back with an added telekinetic boost, smacking into Santo's gigantic, rocky form, "What the hell?"

Santo found it hilarious, "Dude, you're scared of the metal puppy? You flew like, twenty feet back!"

Julian turned around and shoved Santo, not even managing to budge the big mutant's arm, "We're not all made of rock, Santo! That thing pulled razorblades out of its feet! What is it?"

"I am IF Unit 5a-8re. Model W0-11f," Wolf explained, his tail waving in the air, "And I am no one's pet," He seemed almost pleased by scaring the daylights out of Julian. Good for him.

"Just call him Saberwolf. He's not so bad. Just don't say he belongs to anyone, or he'll get pissy," I casually warned them, "I mean, I don't really care if he gets mad at any of you, but then he usually gets mad at me too, because everyone just assumes that he's mine," I turned to Wolf purposefully, "Another reason you should spent more time with Ruthie."

"Point taken," Wolf acknowledged amicably.

Julian stood off to the side and grumbled at how his misfortune was being glossed over, "So we're just ignoring the walking weapon?"

"Yeah. It's worked out well so far for me," I said, getting up and slinging my bag over my neck and shoulder, "So you guys didn't want something, did you? I've got somewhere to be in a few minutes."

"No, we just saw you and thought we'd make your day by coming over," Santo said with a big, wide grin.

"Honestly, you looked bored," Cessily said, walking over to Wolf to look him over. He was much nicer to her because she'd approached him with some measure of respect, seeing as how he was obviously sentient. She offered her hand for a shake, which he actually gave.

Jackass. It had to have been because she was a girl. Apparently he had been let on the principles of chivalry at some point. If I had tried that, even then, he'd have just looked at me and said something smart, or did what he did to scare Julian. Maybe worse, since he knew I knew about the chainsaw.

Anyway, she had a point. When someone was right, they were right. Wolf was fine with the monotony for the most part, but I couldn't quite say the same. This little run-in was the most action I'd gotten all day. When there wasn't training to be done, my adrenaline fix was never quite satisfied.

By now Julian had regained his usual proud demeanor, "You do seem to be short on friends, Marcher. Maybe that's why everyone sees you spending so much time with your advisor."

"Actually, there might be something to that," I started, grinning when he clearly seemed thrown off by that admission, "I'm sitting outside by myself with an A.I. wolf. My list of living, breathing friends is kind of low."

"You sure it's not just because you're looking for some kind of edge in squad competitions?" Santo suggested with some cheek intended, "It's the only way you'll have even a snowball's chance in hell of beating the Hellions," He said, high-fiving Julian.

"Quality, not quantity, suckers," I shot back.