Late Introductions...

With my conversation with the professor pretty much over I decide that I'm going to leave to focus on my project as I'd much rather do that then stick around and find out the results of Xavier's search of Ben's mind which I'm not really bothered about and I'm sure I'd know the result anyway if in the next few days I either see a new human that I've never seen before walking around the building with no orange rock monster in sight or I see the same old grumpy orange rock monster that probably hates me for unveiling the truth to him but either way I'll love with it, I'm about to say my goodbyes and leave the room when I'm interrupted by Johnny. "Hey man, where's this mind protector doohickey then? Is it on you? Is that a new earring? What does it look like? Can you make one for me?" Johnny rapidly spurts out and I take a moment to digest it but I also take a moment to come to terms that even though Johnny doesn't look or act that smart he sometimes has pretty good questions and observations that no one else has though thankfully I've already come up with an answer for some of the answers he's asked me. "The 'mind protector doohickey' is currently on my person, this is a new earring thanks for noticing and in fact this earring holds my mind protection device in it so that it is close to my brain to work more efficiently. I can't actually make you one Johnny as this device I've made has been specifically calibrated for my own mind to make sure it is more powerful and potent but unfortunately I can't make one for you as I wouldn't be able to make one for you without extensive research as i would need to analyse your mind and i don't know if your powers would prevent my device from working on you as you have what Reed calls 'The Power Cosmic' powering you and i wouldn't know the first thing in how to go about getting around that, sorry. You'd be better off asking Reed to make it for you as he knows about your anatomy than me." I say speaking truthfully as I have no need to study the power cosmic as it is too unreliable and sporadic of a source and I wouldn't know how to gain any powers from it as it could go badly wrong like it did for Ben and there's no system for what kind of powers it grants people so it would be best that I leave it alone and just let Reed research it but I'm afraid he doesn't research how it affects people and the people who do know how it works are much too dangerous and I'd much rather leave it alone than get anywhere close to them.

"Oh, bummer. Well Reed, can you make me one? Also nice earring dude, it's not too much so that I don't question your sexuality but it isn't scrappy enough that I question how much pot you smoke on a daily basis plus you got it on the right ear. I got an earring in high school and made the mistake of getting it in the wrong ear and I was very confused when I started gaining the interest of a lot of boys, I was flattered but I had to let them down easy." Johnny compliments and I can hear Susan begin to chortle at his expense. "I remember that, it was the funniest two weeks of high school until you finally found out that you had an earring on the wrong ear and stopped wearing earrings all together." That does sound pretty funny and I'm glad I didn't make the same mistake as Johnny as I got my earring in my left ear and although that doesn't mean much nowadays I still prefer it and the earring I had pierced into my left ear is just a simple silver stud that isn't too big and I'm happy with that as I don't really like my earring but I need it, I had the medical station pierce my ears when I was having my brain implant put in the other day and that's because I knew that eventually people would discover that I've protected my mind against mind readers even if I didn't expect it to be so soon and instead of them knowing that it's an implant in my head I have them think that it's an earring in my left ear which is close enough to where the implant actually is in my head that they shouldn't be able to find the implant and this is good as it acts as a red herring and might potentially help me out in the future plus I'd rather people didn't know I have an implant in my head against mind readers.

"I can't believe you let me walk around for two weeks like that and dint tell me, anyway Reed can you make me one? I wanna make sure that when I end up with a girl that it's not because I'm being mind controlled, you have no idea how many times a girl has snuck some fake love potion into my drink thinking that it would actually work and I'm not worried that one time it might actually work but I'd still like to be careful." I stifle my snort as I'm pretty sure that he actually has quite a healthy fear of that but doesn't want anyone to know and it's clear that Susan also thinks the same as I can see her cover her mouth to stop Johnny from seeing her smile. "I'm sorry Johnny but it would take too long to come up with such a thing as well as making it calibrated to you specifically to withstand the cosmic power also I would have to make it fire proof and there are bigger more important things I have to focus on. If I have any time though I'll try and look into it." Reed sighs and pretty much just rejects Johnny but quickly ad-libs at the end to let Johnny down easily which Johnny just nods at though he doesn't seem to have much hope for that, After they both stop speaking the room remains silent for a moment before I decide to make my move and try to leave the room and go focus on my project. "Right, well I'll leave you guys to it and I'll go focus on my work. It was nice to meet you two." Saying so I turned around and made for the door but I was stopped by the professors next words now that he's finally stopped being silent while we all had our little moment. "Hold on a second young man, you should stick around and wait for the results after all you brought this possible problem to our knowledge. We haven't even introduced ourselves to each other." He say and so I stop in my tracks and turn around to face them before walking back over to the conference desk to take a seat next to Susan. "Very well." I say because it would look weird and suspicious for me to leave even after he insisted that I stay and I don't want to arouse any suspicions plus it would be rude to leave after he asked me to stay.

"Great, I am Professor Charles Xavier but you can just call me Professor. This is my colleague Ororo Munroe, it's nice to meet you..." He says leaving the end open ended clearly asking my name and so I answer. "Nicholas James, you can call me Nick. It's nice to meet you Professor, Miss Munroe." Charles smiles at me while Storm gently shakes her head. "Just Ororo is fine." I nod my head while looking at her. "Nice to meet you then, Ororo." Storm is a statuesque black woman with silver-white hair and startling blue eyes and though her uniform has changed several times in different continuities it seems she still favors black leather and gold accents with lightning-like motifs,cloaks to catch her winds on in this universe along with a complicated black headgear that really frames her gorgeous face and while her hair has run the gamut from ultra-long to mohawk punk to short (and I think she just had her head shaved forcibly in one of the last comics I hear about) here it seems she has stuck to the stunning ultra long silver-white hair, at least for the moment.

I settle in for what seems to be a fairly stressing event for some people though I'll at least not be bored, plus I get to interact with Storm so that's cool...

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I had my exam on Friday which I'm sure you'll be happy to now I passed, it was then my birthday on Saturday and I'm now 20 years old. It'll be back to your regular scheduled chapters from now on, enjoy.

<AN> I now have a Pa treon up and running and when a chapter is ready it will go up on Pa treon first so please take a look. Some support from you guys would be appreciated and motivate me.

Currently 36+ Chapters.

(www.pa treon.com/GutsyRipper)

A special thank you to my patrons Tim Brown, Stormrall, Turtle, Matthew Laird, Sage Honos, Derrick Porter, Manuel Arauio, Darth Bane, Tyler A and Zed. Thank you for the support.