Team Dynamics (Part Six)

It was late, and in the cold, plain environment of the Danger Room, I found myself getting bored quickly. But I had sent out messages, received affirmative replies, and had to hang around for the people I sent them to.

It wasn't as creepy being alone in the Danger Room after hours as I thought it would be. After it went nuts and flew the coop, so to speak, it was just a big, empty space. The school was still in the process of repurposing it, so no one went in there anymore. Funnily enough, the best place for an unsanctioned showdown was the obvious place where a fight would and should happen.

Oh, yeah. A fight. Yeah… that was what I was there for.

Of the two people I messaged, Julian was the first to saunter in, dressed in his uniform, as I had requested. I was in mine as well. He didn't seem pleased to be there, "What's this all about, Marcher? Don't think you can start flexing your muscles like you're better than me just because you're in charge."

I frowned at him in return, "You always could have not showed up," I honestly had expected someone to say no. Yet, they did not, "If you thought I was going to throw my weight around, why'd you even bother?"

Julian looked away, trying to play things cool, "Brian leaving school sucks even more than I thought it would. Without him in the room anymore, it's kind of boring," I got it. By then, it had become abundantly clear that despite how he oftentimes acted, he didn't like being alone. He enjoyed being around people, usually as the center of attention, but he enjoyed being around people regardless, "What did you call me here for?" He asked, quickly getting back on topic.

"Just a minute," I asked of him, "Someone else is coming. When they get here, I'll explain."

We stood around shooting the shit for a few more minutes before we were finally joined by the last part of my little gathering. The big doors to the Danger Room opened and closed, signifying their arrival. I immediately braced for proverbial fireworks.

Noriko walked in, at first surprised to see Julian and me, before her expression turned to a sneer, "What is he doing here?"

"Took the words right out of my mouth, Ashida," Julian shot back, glaring a hole into her as well, "What the fuck is this?"

I walked between the two of them, bringing both of their ire onto me for the time being, "Guys, I know what happened today wasn't a really dangerous mission and all, but we can't have that. I was mad about it earlier, but I've had some time to think."

Nori rolled her eyes, trying to guess where I was going with things, "So, what? You want us to sit around and talk it out? Maybe have a little 'kumbaya' session? Not happening."

Julian scoffed at the idea, literally turning his nose up at it, "First and only time I'll ever agree with Ashida. She's right," He said, beginning to walk away, "I should have stayed in the room."

"…Would have done us all a favor," Nori muttered, not trying to hide it whatsoever.

Upon hearing Noriko's unprompted remark, Julian wheeled around, a faint green glow around his body as he floated over to face off with her, "Alright, that's it!"

For once, I didn't step in and stop them. This was what I'd brought them there for in the first place. I moved off to the far end of the room and leaned against the wall while they continued to verbally tear into each other. Thankfully, we were two basements underneath the school, and the big metal doors were closed. They screamed at each other for minutes, flaring their powers back and forth. It was all a lot of bluster, until suddenly, it wasn't.

Something pointed out of Julian's mouth was of course what set it off, "Always with something smart to say! I'm pretty sure Alleyne would appreciate it if you stopped running your mouth and started using it to-!"

Before he could finish what would have undoubtedly been a vulgar reference to fellatio, a quick punch to the face from Nori's metal gauntlets sent him stumbling back. Julian touched at his lips in shock, looking down at the blood and running his tongue over the cut in his mouth. When he looked over at me, I didn't move. In fact, I egged it on.

"I don't know why you're looking at me, dude," I said, gesturing to Nori, "You gonna sit back and take that? She drew blood."

Nori gaped at me only long enough to realize what I'd said. By then Julian had lifted himself off of the ground and launched himself at her in an effort to get her back. She was able to block the punch, but he hit her hard enough to send her sliding back across the floor on her ass.

Nori picked herself up, electricity brimming from her entire body, eyes glowing blue. As Julian flew around the Danger Room, looking for an opportunity to swoop in, Nori took it as a good chance for target practice.

Worrying little for collateral damage, she let loose with more strength than I'd seen her use at once. It was all power and no control. Electricity branched off and flew everywhere. Even I had to keep my head on a swivel to keep from getting hit, and she wasn't even aiming at me.

In the air, Julian had to put up a telekinetic forcefield to protect himself. Despite that, he was still forced back to the wall with each blast Nori gave him. She walked him down, firing again and again, waiting for him to break. In her hubris, she got too close, and Julian made her pay for it.

"That's IT!" Julian bellowed, turning his forcefield into a telekinetic wave that pushed everything within its range away from him. His range was everything in the Danger Room. Nori and I were knocked back, and Julian was free from her bombardment, which was bad news for her.

Nori didn't stay still to wait for him to retaliate. One of the things her electric powers gave her were enhanced speed. When she tapped into it, she was even faster than me - far faster.

If you remember, there are three distinct rules I came up with when fighting telekinetics. Apparently, Nori had read my pamphlet, because she stuck to rule number one like it was a lifeline. That rule was to never stay still.

She rushed around the Danger Room, trying to take potshots at Julian's elevated form whenever she was presented with his back or side. She actually managed to get him a few times, and I knew they hurt. It was all over his face. I had never had the displeasure of fighting Noriko, and watching how she dealt with Julian, I was grateful for that.

Julian had to scramble between protecting himself and trying to stop Nori. His powers could only work as fast as he could process what was going on around him. He couldn't focus on her enough to grab her. Using his powers to try and catch Nori was like someone using their hand to try and grab a buzzing fly out of the air... only the fly was a girl on the ground with blue hair and an attitude problem.

...And much like a fly, it was much easier to catch her once he figured out that he could cast a net instead of trying to just snatch her.

Eventually, Nori ran headlong into a telepathic wall. Before she could change course and move in a different direction, she could herself trapped. Julian's grip had transitioned into one the size of her body that held her in place. She struggled for as long as she could, until Julian provided enough pressure to immobilize her entirely.

I inhaled sharply through my teeth, as I could see how this was going to devolve if things continued as they were. I was ready to step in, but I had to let it play out. If I stopped it before there was a resolution, it wouldn't solve anything.

"Ashida..." Julian said with heavy breaths. He winced from the damage he'd received from Noriko's electricity blasts, "...Give it up. It's over," Nori shook her head and upped her output. Gritting his teeth with effort, his fingers slowly started curling inward as he started squeezing the fight out of her, "Damn it, why!? Why do you hate me so much!?"

Nori's eyes crackled with just as much electricity as the rest of her body, "Fuck you!" She attempted to discharge, but Julian's telekinetic grip contained all of it. He needed both hands worth of focus to do so, however, "This is what you wanted! It's what you always wanted, since the day we met!"

Julian instead launched the girl across the room. Her body hit the metal wall and slid down to the floor. I thought he'd stopped for the same reason I figured he did; because he wasn't willing to risk putting more pressure on Nori to make her quit, lest her output slip and he accidentally crush her. When she raised her head, I saw a different possible reason.

Tears. She was crying. I had seen plenty of girls cry. I had never seen Noriko cry. Not from pain, not from embarrassment or defeat, not during any of the memorial ceremonies. Never. I hazarded to guess that Julian hadn't either, from how he reacted.

"What... the-?" He didn't even know where to start, "What are you talking about?"

Nori laughed and sobbed simultaneously, "Of course you don't fucking remember!" She said, "The first day I came here... or tried to come here. When I was at the gate..." She trailed off, staring directly into Julian's eyes, "...Keller, do you remember ever talking to a homeless kid standing outside of the school?"

I looked between the two of them, realization sinking in for me at the same time it did for Julian, "Oh, dude," I said, "Dude, don't tell me..."

Julian found himself at a loss for words, "I... I..."

While he might have had trouble finding his voice, Noriko did not, "I just wanted some help! I couldn't control my powers! I didn't have anywhere to go! And I finally found out about somewhere that maybe could help make things better..." It sounded difficult for her to think about those times, "I get there, and it looks like a dream... and some smug, rich asshole inside looks down his nose at me through the bars and tells me to get lost. Just... looks at me like I'm garbage and tells me that Xavier's isn't for people like me."

I knew he'd been a real piece of work before I showed up, but I hadn't been prepared for that level of douchebaggery. I had been able to move past my little feud with Julian, but if I had been in Nori's shoes, I probably would have never let that grudge die either.

"That wasn't what I-... Ashida, I was talking about-." He seemed ready to argue, until he realized that it didn't matter what he'd meant at the time. There was no good look for him here, "...Did I really?"

Nori nodded, done crying, but eyes still full of tears, "-And you never stopped being an asshole! You were an asshole to me, and all of my friends who helped me! Who let me come here! You were trying to fuck one of my friends, and you were still a piece of shit!"

Julian swallowed heavily, as though a lead weight were going down his gullet, "I didn't even know that had been you from back then."

"Does it matter!?" Noriko howled, jumping to her feet, fists clenched, "Does that make it better!?"

"Yes! Well, no, but-!" Julian stumbled over his words before finding his place, "I just thought you were some angry chick with a grudge because the Hellions were the tops. I didn't know you..." -Had an actual reason to hate his fucking guts that he did no favors to assuage over the following year and a half? "...I didn't know."

That summary wasn't good enough for Nori. Not after eighteen months of hating him, "Well, now you do," She stomped away, stopping by me, frustration all over her face and body language, "Happy, Bel?" She asked acid in her tone.

The answer was no. None of that made me happy.

I thought it would just be a knock-down, drag-out, and that would be the sum of it. Just a little something to let them get it out of their system, give me a few laughs, blow off some steam. I thought their issue had been pettier than it was, because no one would ever tell me what the deal was. None of the New Mutants, none of the Hellions (who I doubted knew if Julian himself didn't). No one. I hadn't known Nori had been living on the streets before coming to Xavier's. I hadn't known any of it.

I had been wrong. There had been a real gripe there that had only festered over time.

I kept everything I felt off of my face, putting on the most neutral expression I could, "We'll talk later, okay?" Despite that, I knew I'd let some concern bleed into what I said.

Nori's expression softened just a bit, and she nodded before walking away, self-consciously holding herself all the way out of the Danger Room doors. That left me and Julian alone with the awkwardness.

I didn't know what to say. He didn't know what to say. Neither of us knew whether or not to walk off until Nori was farther away, who would go first, or anything. We were just stuck with each other, and the silence was crushing.

Julian looked pained, and it wasn't because of what Nori done; more because of what she had said, "That was a long time ago. I'm not the same guy. I-," He tried to explain before shaking his head free of the excuses. The person better suited to saying these things to had left, and it probably wouldn't have mattered if he'd said them to her, "...Things have changed since then. A lot of things. My parents disowned me over the summer."

I didn't know why he would tell me that. It was the kind of thing a proud guy like him wouldn't let slip so easily. My mind quickly harkened back to the whirlwind few days that Laura and I had in California, courtesy of the Facility, eventually imposing upon the Hellions' hospitality, "Was that because of-?"

He quickly stopped me and eased my fears, "No, it wasn't your thing with the clone-, err, Laura," He actually corrected himself regarding her designation, "Many, many things happened after you left. You ever hear of someone called 'Kingmaker'? Never mind."

I had to stop him. He was talking a lot to try and do damage control. It wasn't necessary, "You don't have to tell me all of this, Julian. Knowing it won't change anything here," I said, gesturing between the two of us.

He was still on the team, and it had been a while since I'd personally despised him. I wasn't about to go back to those days for something that had happened to someone else before I'd ever known either of them.

"Right," Julian sighed, running a hand through his hair, "Marcher... am I a good person?"

I was blunt about it. I had to be, "No," By this point, we were actually friends, and if he was asking me straight up, he needed to hear it, "You could be. You have people that love you, who see the good in you. You're good to them. But shit like that... you still do shit like that."

Not as much, clearly, since hearing it from Nori legitimately caught me off guard. But even if the last time he'd really bullied people had been before the summer break, that was still fresh. It was still recent enough that any change since then couldn't be considered the rule as opposed to the exception now.

Still, it wasn't like I had a lot of room to talk. Case in point, the current situation. Maybe that was why he felt comfortable saying what he'd said to me before about being disowned? Because we were both kind of assholes.

Enough time had passed that it felt appropriate for Julian to leave, so he did so, a difference in his gait. I remained behind. Last man out. There was a lot to unpack. A lot to digest.

And that was just one story involving two people out of fifteen on this team.

My team.

Before leaving, I looked up at the observation area above the Danger Room. There, I saw Mister Summers standing, arms crossed, staring down at me impassively. The headmaster of the school. The leader of the X-Men. What was he thinking? Was he judging me? My team?

I shook my head and walked away. He didn't follow. I didn't get criticism. I didn't get a lecture. I didn't get a pep talk. I didn't get anything from him. Either way, I had a lot of work to do. It was a good thing I was an asshole with insomnia, because after all, there was no rest for the wicked.