Big City Field Trip (Part One)

Eddie had gotten up early to get breakfast with me, a major feat for him on the weekend. It would have been great bro-time if he hadn't been a grumpy dick about getting up before noon. And if getting up early didn't make him testy enough, when we made it back to the common area inside the boy's dorm, we saw Reverend William Stryker on TV, mixing in hate speech with his sermons. Three guesses as to who it was aimed at.

Eddie sighed and shook his head at Jay Guthrie from the New Mutants, the student up watching the show, "Dude, I know you get down with the televangelist stuff on Sunday mornings, but you literally couldn't have picked a worse one to watch."

I looked at it for a moment before disregarding it. Stryker was far from the first person with a platform to say we suck. I was more amazed that he was around in the first place, "I thought this guy was in jail. Wasn't he in jail?"

Last time I checked, which was when Miss Pryde was around, he definitely was. She hated this Stryker guy. When she got around to telling X-Men stories and he came up, she had less than glowing things to say, to be frank.

"For what, kidnapping and killing a few mutants?" Eddie said sarcastically, "Come on. That's like a misdemeanor at best to people in charge," And it seemed like the more deaths you were responsible for, the less time you served than you were supposed to, "He probably got pardoned, or something."

Honestly, aside from the stuff he'd been tied to (attempted murder, kidnapping, torture), Stryker apparently had his own secret goon squad to carry out tons of things that he hadn't been charged for. So... yeah, against mutants? Probably a five-year sentence that he got out early on for good behavior... because there weren't many mutants kept in human prisons to victimize. That was what prisons like The Raft were for.

Eddie and I got into our own discussion, as Jay remained quiet, listening more to what was on TV than to us shit-talk Reverend Stryker. Eventually, he said something to us – one sentence.

"Do you ever think we're evil?"

That stopped Eddie and I in our tracks, just because of the audacity of it. It was rather offensive, and Eddie took it harder than I did, "Why? Because we're mutants? Come on, Icarus. Do you feel evil?"

At that point, I interjected like a smart-aleck, "I mean, personally, I think I'm a piece of shit, but not because I'm a mutant. I'm just a jerk. That's not biology, that's just Bellamy."

That was just all of us, really. For example, Julian Keller was a major piece of work, but again, that was more in tune with my stuff. He was just a jerk. A dumb teenager - not evil. Laura wasn't evil. She'd been forced to kill by those who were evil, and since then, she had done nothing but try to live her life and do something good with what she was capable of. I could have gone on and on about everyone I knew.

"This Garden of Eden is meant for mankind, God's chosen. And the path to Eden is paved swords and serpents. Only the chosen will brave this road to protect it for the rest, from those never meant to partake of this living paradise we call Earth."

Yeah, that sounded like hate-talk to me.

"I just feel like there's something we all have to answer for," Jay said, sounding conflicted.

I felt my brow furrow in irritation, "Right, and if you believe in God, we will be judged... by St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. Not by some guy on TV," Only the people who had been around me to know firsthand had that right. And, depending on who they were, I still had the right to not listen.

Nothing was evil just because it existed, and nothing deserved to be wiped out in its entirety just for being around. That was the line of logic Eddie went with in trying to persuade our troubled classmate, "Dude, were dodos evil? Are whales evil? Are buffalo evil? Are bees evil?"

...I think that was what he was trying to go for with that, at least.

I shook my head and gave a small bit of push-back, "That last one doesn't work for this. Bees are absolutely evil. They make sure plants grow, and their honey is so good... but they'll also try to painfully kill you without you even doing anything. So, they're evil," I felt the need to go back to breakfast and see if there was anything with honey in it.

Eddie slapped frantically in my general direction to get me to stop ruining his platform, "Look, my point is, mutants aren't evil. Sure, there are mutants that do evil shit, just like there are humans that do evil shit. Don't let some dude on TV tell you something that has you questioning yourself and your friends."

Yes, hype-man. I couldn't have said it better myself. Still, it didn't seem to have convinced Jay that much.

I took my shot to try and help, "Look, you know we have a guy on staff to talk to about this stuff now, right?" I asked. Dr. Garrison had been there for a little over a week, and mandatory meetings weren't set yet, so only a handful of students knew about him so far, "Go talk to him about it. It's literally the only thing he's here for. I do it all the time."

-Because I had to. Even so, he didn't need to know that part in the chance that he would actually take me up on that offer.