Time Is A Flat Circle (Part Four)

I had U.S. history that semester with Dani Moonstar, who was the New Mutants advisor. Speaking of them, three of her students were all in that class – Sofia, Noriko, and Laurie. Lucky for me, I had Eddie with me. Unlucky for me, he spent a lot of time hitting on them.

"Eddie, stop," I said after listening to three straight minutes of him trying to low-key hit on them before class, "Are you trying to die?"

I was still grumpy from lunch. But I was always kind of prickly, so no one else would have noticed anything wrong. Eddie didn't, "They wouldn't do that to me. It's not like I'm being pushy. I'm just saying that if any of them are interested, they have my number."

"I don't mean them," I pointed out. All of those girls were either into somebody, or vice-versa. If I knew this, he for certain did as well.

Eddie waved off my minor concerns, "Well, they're not dating anyone last time I checked. You would never let anyone beat my ass for hitting on single girls."

"Well, I wouldn't count on that," I lifted my cast-covered hand and wiggled my fingers, "For the next few days, I'm handicapped, buddy."

Eddie tapped it, feeling that it wasn't a hard cast. It was just there to cover something and keep me from picking at it, "Can you even train until that thing comes off?" He asked. I shook my head, "That sucks. Don't you heal really fast?"

"When I sleep, which I never do," I specified, "And this isn't a bad enough injury to force me to."

"Wow, you are in a mood today," Noriko pointed out, "Is it because of that thing at lunch? I heard you cried."

I smirked at her in return. If she wanted to mess with me, she had to try better than that, "Yes, I cried. No, I'm not saying why. It's personal, and not my personal."

I'd never had class with Noriko, but she followed Hisako's school of thought in dealing with me – challenge me at every turn. However, where verbally jousting with Hisako was more related to finesse and timing, Noriko was as subtle as a sledgehammer. Plus, it was way easier to make her lose her cool. She did not want to play that game with me all school year long. I'd drive her insane.

Eddie, on the other hand, could get to me without meaning to, "No, it's not that. He was pissy before that," He said. My teeth clicked in annoyance, "He's kinda been an asshole all day. A bigger one than usual, I mean."

Had the bar for me being a jerk been lowered that much? I was offended, "I haven't been an asshole, in a while, actually. I haven't messed with anyone or done anything mean in forever," Eddie went to open his mouth, a point from me stopped him, "Hisako doesn't count. Screwing with each other is our thing."

Sofia's brow furrowed in thought, "Okay, so Bellamy is bitter about something else," Nope. Not a chance, sweetheart. We were friends, but she didn't know me well enough to reason out my attitude.

Nori leaned back and grinned like a cat that ate the canary, "I can't imagine why, after what he got up to last night."

My head turned her way so fast, my neck popped, "Why do you know what I get up to ever? I don't spread my details around."

She was way too smug about knowing any of my inner workings, "Pixie likes to talk. She really to talk about you," She looked me over and shook her head, "What are you doing for that girl?"

"All good things, apparently," Sofia mumbled, covering a mischievous smile behind her hand.

I gave her a look a betrayal. And here we had always been so civil, "Now you're getting in on it too?" I complained, before pointing at Laurie, who had been refreshingly passive in the conversation, "You know what? I changed my mind. Wallflower is my favorite New Mutant now. She never talks to me, but at least she never fucks with me either."

Eddie shrugged, coming to the defense of the ladies, "It's not a secret, dude. You and Pixie disappear all the time whenever you think you've got Hope or Saberwolf out of the way," He was way too smug, "You're not slick."

I mulled things over for a moment. What was I getting embarrassed about? All of this just meant that I was the man, "So what? Damn. You guys jealous?"

"I am!" Eddie admitted unashamedly.

Noriko pulled out her phone and started digging into social media, "Okay, let's see what makes Bellamy tick," Good luck with that. I didn't put anything important on any of those things. I held my breath when her face shifted. She had clearly found something, "...It's your birthday today."

Crap. Well, there went that little nugget of information, "Yep," I admitted begrudgingly.

The girls all looked Eddie's way, thinking he had either been hoarding the information or had forgotten my birthday entirely. He pleaded his innocence, "Don't look at me. I didn't know. This is the first I'm hearing about it."

"That was the idea," I chimed in, defending my good friend, "I didn't tell anybody."

Sofia's face lit up, clearly finding plenty of reason to brighten up, "Well, happy birthday, Bellamy."

I wanted to roll my eyes, but someone was being legitimately nice to me. I wasn't so awful that I'd just throw something like that on the ground, "Thank you, Sof. As my present, don't say it too loud, and forget you ever found out about it."

Noriko continued going through her phone, trying to figure out how she could have missed this, "I really should have gotten this. Wait. Did you turn off all notifications for your birthday on Facebook? Who does that?"

"Someone that doesn't care about their birthday," I answered, really wishing that the bell would ring so Miss Moonstar would shut us all up, "Guys, let it go. I really don't care. It's just a day."

Eddie, as was his nature, tried to get me pumped up, "Fuck that. We should be throwing some kind of party, which could also double as a welcome back to campus for everybody. We'd be so cool after that!" Unfortunately for him, this time it failed. The stern look I gave him shut him down quickly, "...We could have at least gotten you a gift or something."

Sofia nodded in agreement, "I would have wanted to celebrate. Or at least properly wish you well. You have been a good friend to us. I think many people would feel the same. You don't still believe people dislike you, do you?"

The voice in my head that had been plaguing me for some time came roaring back, "Well, well. Look at you, mister popular. All those losers. They're just as dumb as you are if they think you're worth stressing over."

Noriko took a different route in trying to break me down, simultaneously stealing my attention back, "Aww, are you afraid nobody would come if you threw a birthday party?" She asked in a baby voice, reaching out to pinch my cheek.

Eddie rolled his eyes at her attempt to tease me, "Surge, I don't think any of us ever have to worry about that again after the last one, which I remind you, was the brainchild of our incandescent commander."

Despite the girl pulling on my face, I couldn't help but grin, "Wingman, you're a lyrical gangster," I said, before my scowl returned and I swatted Nori's hand away, "Girl, look at me. I try not to let any of this kind of bullshit influence any aspect of my life here. It's like my motto says, 'If it doesn't matter to me, who cares?'"

"I thought your motto was, 'I'm a grumpy, sarcastic fuck.'" Nori chirped. I raised my eyebrow at her as if to ask if that was the best she had. She must have realized that it was terrible from the lack of eye contact that followed. Hisako she was not with the banter, "A-Anyway, just because you're too much of a chameleon to be cliquey doesn't mean you've got enemies. You've had plenty of beef with students before. You've had beef with teachers before."

"Thankfully, we all got over it," I said, "Nothing like bad guys trying to kill you on a regular basis to put things into perspective."

Eddie still wanted his answers, "That doesn't explain the birthday thing," Why did he have to focus on this, of all things?

"Because I hate the idea of celebrating my goddamn birthday," I blurted out before putting a high, sarcastic pitch to my voice, "Oh, my mom squirted me out on this day 17 years ago, and I spent the last twelve months not getting murdered. Ooh, what an accomplishment."

Noriko chuckled to herself, "Around here, I think it actually is. We should all have a party every day nothing goes wrong," Eddie raised his hand for a concurring 'too sweet' and got it from the blue-haired Asian girl.

"Your birthday," Laurie spoke up for the first time since any of us had sat down. The shy girl powered through having my unfamiliar eyes on her and continued, "...You said 'your' birthday, and not birthdays in general."

Damn that perceptive, quiet chick. I would have to second-guess that thought to switch who my favorite New Mutant was if she kept analyzing my words like that. It even got Eddie to realize it himself, "Hey, yeah. You got me something for my birthday. Blindfold too."

"Because I'm glad you guys are around and I want to make sure you know it," Everyone just stared at me as if the same thing went for all of them, "Oh whatever. I'm the leader. I'm supposed to look after my friends," I said, after realizing I'd trapped myself.

Noriko reached out and put one of her gauntlet-covered hands on my arm, "...Who hurt you, Bellamy Marcher? Did you get some trauma from a party game gone wrong when you were little?"

Eddie shivered in his seat in reminiscence, "Seriously. Games of 'pin the tail on the donkey', or hitting the pinata can go very bad very fast when you're dealing with little kids," The awkward silence that fell prompted him say more, "...I've got a younger brother and sister."

All of the speculation got to me, which wasn't hard to do. I didn't have any major tragedies or traumas in my childhood. I just thought celebrating my birthday was a waste of time, money, and effort, "Nobody. Seriously, thank you guys, but just wait to give me some gifts and throw me a party until I do some real shit. My ego will demand it then."

"Like last semester?" Sofia commented, sounding wholly unconvinced, "What was the reason for that party?"

I raised an eyebrow and touched on an earlier point her teammate made, "I think surviving until summer break in this place was enough of an accomplishment for everybody who did."

Sofia huffed, smoothing her brown hair out of her face as she regarded all of us, "Really, there is no need to exaggerate the danger at Xavier's. No, it isn't the safest school, but-."

Whatever she was about to say was cut off by the sound of an explosion in the direction of the front gate. All of the trained kids jumped to their feet while the others flinched and ducked. In a matter of seconds an alarm went off and red lights started to flash in the hall.

Miss Moonstar moved to the door and checked the hallway before motioning for us to head out, "Alright, we've all done the drills. Listen to the faculty on the floor and head to the basement," She tried to keep a calm demeanor, but she could only play it so cool when an emergency was happening during school hours.

There was a lot of tension and mumbling while everyone moved through the halls. No one was running. The stairs down to the lower level weren't that far. It just took credentials that most students didn't have to open the doors or the main elevator to get down there. There were senior staff guiding us along, keeping watch at certain points along everyone's route.

"Crap. That's right," Noriko cursed when she realized why all of this seemed less fortified than it should have been, "We're still working out updated lockdown procedures. The old ones involved the Danger Room. You know, the one that doesn't work anymore."

Eddie remained optimistic, "The lower levels should be safe enough. They've got to go through the X-Men to get there anyway, if hurting students is what they're after."

I looked around and saw we were now moving alongside students from what would equal middle school classes, "We should probably stop talking about that with the younger kids around," We didn't need anyone getting more scared than they already were.

Contrary to popular belief, the faculty at Xavier's had their shit together better than most of us gave them credit for. Better than any human counterparts would have if given the same circumstances. The problem was, they fought professional killers who usually had powers that were just as formidable as theirs. And having a bunch of squishy, uninitiated kids around to protect made it hard to fight.

They did the best they could, but facts were facts. And the fact was that all any bad guy had to do to get the upper hand on them was go after any one of us. That was why they arranged student training squads on the high school level, so the ones of us with the acumen to fight could at least make ourselves less of the victims. The better ones of us were in the running to be X-Men and take part in defending the others.

"Come on," Mister Drake was in his ice form, but like the rest of the teachers, he hadn't gotten the chance to change out of his professional clothes into his X-Men uniform, "Watch your step on the stairs, guys. By the time you all get to the bottom of that thing, this'll probably be over," He assured some of the more frightened kids.

Eddie hustled behind me, as a herd of students headed to relative safety, "Jeez. These guys are getting bold now; trying to get at us in broad daylight, through the front."

Sofia had a nifty little talent where she could isolate sounds using the wind, and used that to sort through everyone's nervous chatter, "Other people are talking about a fire in the woods from someone destroying the defenses there."

I tried to keep a reasonable mind. The building hadn't been hit yet. I hadn't heard about anyone being hurt. Hopefully things would stay that way. Maybe this was just some loon who wanted to send a message to mutants by scaring us? It was better than the alternative of actually being attacked.

After the Danger Room, the most secure place in the school was the room with Cerebra. But you weren't going to stuff a few hundred kids in there with equipment like that around. The third most secure place was the hangar. There was plenty of room there, enough to fit vehicles, aircraft, and other large things. Plus, it was built into the side of the mountain the original mansion rested on.

"Alright, time for Paladins roll call," I started tapping out a group text for the entire team, and decided to multitask at the time, 'Ruthie, if you can read me, let me know you're good.'

"She is fine, Bellamy, yes. She is downstairs. The hangar is a safe place, pardon. That is what the teachers believe."

That was good. And as I sent out my text, I got responses from Eddie who was right next to me, and even Laura, who I thought was avoiding me. She was tucked away in the basement level just like Ruth. No answer from Hisako, though. I hadn't seen her all day.

Instead of a message in the group chat, I got a direct message from her phone. All it said was, 'Call me'. I didn't like that. Nothing good came from someone telling you to call them when they could have just texted you about whatever the fuck they needed instead, especially at a time like this.

With great hesitation, I gave her a call. The voice I heard on the other end was not my Armor, "Right on time, mister leader," A flash of pure rage ran through me, "Ah-ah-ah. Not too loud now. Think about what you know right now."

There had been an attack. More than one from the sound of things. Enough that the response had to be spread out to make sure there wasn't something coming from multiple sides.

"All I want is for you to come and get your friend. If I see any sign of X-Men, I'll have to do something neither of us wants me to," With that, whoever was on Hisako's phone hung up.

There was no time to waste. I bit my tongue to choke down part of my anger. The taste of blood settled me a tad. I pulled Eddie in close, "We've got to get out of here. Now," I doubted the kidnapper was going to wait until lockdown was cleared.

Eddie looked at me like I'd grown a second head, "We've got to get out of here? What are you talking about?"

I couldn't tear my eyes off of my phone. I could feel the plastic strain under the pressure of my grip, "Remember when you said you wished you could get some hero cred? This is your chance," I looked up and met Eddie's confused eyes, "We've got to go get Hisako."

"What do you mean, we-?" He started to exclaim before I gestured for him to quiet down, "What do you mean, we've to go get Hisako? Where the hell is she?" He hissed at me in a whisper.

I checked my phone for the friend tracker app I'd signed us all up for. The three dots representing Eddie, Ruth, and Laura were where they needed to be. Hisako's was a few miles away, "...Off-campus."

Eddie wasn't a genius, but when the pieces to a picture were in front of him, he could put the image together just fine.

"Dude..." He whined, the reality of the danger his best friend was in hit him, "Well, why is it up to us? We should tell a teacher or something, and God, that might have been the most bitch-ass thing that ever came out of my mouth," He finished, eyes widening in realization of that point.

"If any X-Men show, she's screwed. The guy said us," I told him, swallowing down my anger. That could wait until we saw the bastard that took Hisako, "Buzz the New Mutants, but don't tell 'em why we're leaving. I'll find an opening."

Good wingman that he was, Eddie did as I asked, and told the best possible person who wouldn't make a fuss over it – Laurie, "We've got to go check on Armor. Cover for us," She was too stunned and too shy to stop him before I'd come up with an exit strategy and pulled him away.

Eddie and I slipped out of the mass of humanity moving toward cover and into an open classroom. Opening a window, he floated out first and grabbed me, letting me shut the window behind us to cover our tracks. From there, he took off, following my direction to find Hisako.

It took us some time to get there while I was being carried. Eddie had to say something to try and calm his nerves, "What if this is a trap?"

"This is almost definitely a trap," I deadpanned, "It doesn't matter. If we don't go, Hisako dies anyway. What's upping the student body count two more if we die too?"

I could hear the frown on his face, "That's dark, Bel," I didn't know if he wanted me to reassure him in some way, but it was what it was. Sugarcoating things wouldn't help us, "Why is anyone after us? What did we do? School just started back up. We've been back in town for a week!"

These were all questions I planned on asking once I busted the kidnapper's head open to see all of the bright colors inside. Or kidnappers, because I had no idea if this was a group effort or not.

We landed a little ways away from where the app said Hisako's phone was and walked the rest of the way. It took us down a side street to a part that was under construction to connect back to a main road somewhere. There was construction equipment all over the place, and one person sat on a metal container watching us approach.

Eddie was jittery. It was a good thing his powers weren't as twitch-reactive as mine, or he probably would have fired by now. Not that I would blame him. I wanted some vengeance as well, but I wanted answers too, and I couldn't get those if I put a hole in the guy.

I took a deep breath and counted to ten. I wanted a calm, civil introduction, "Who are you? What do you want? And why am I not melting your face off with my bare hands?" I punctuated with a glow to my hands.

Close enough.

Our would-be kidnapper was a black guy with short dreads. He dressed just like a normal guy – jeans, t-shirt There wasn't anything remarkable about him at first glance. The lazy way he chewed his gum while sizing us up pissed me off though. He was holding my friend hostage. Have a little more urgency about you, dick, "I was hoping you would come alone."

"I'll bet you did," I remarked, "Easier pickings, right?"

"Well, yeah," He admitted, "That, and I don't give a shit about these two. I just wanted you, Bellamy."

Eddie looked between the two of us, "Just him?" He asked in disbelief, "Why any of us? This is bullshit. We're kids. What did Bel do to piss you off, man?"

"I don't care what I did," I snapped. We could see Hisako sat in the lifted shovel of a bulldozer, tied up and miserable, "I came to pick up something that belongs to me," I dropped my scowl and tried my best to smile at Hisako, "Hey, Armor. You okay?"

"My head hurts from where I got hit, but I'm fine," Hisako said, fidgeting with her bonds. Her face was full of regret, "...Damn it, Bel, Eddie. I'm sorry."

I shook my head. She didn't need to apologize for someone ambushing her, "It's okay. It seems like this shit happens to all of us," I then jerked my head in the direction of my red-headed homie, "Well, not Eddie, yet. I'm guessing he's due at some point."

"Dude, don't put that evil on me," He bantered back. He was still very concerned with what was going on with Hisako, "...Why isn't she armoring up?"

A great question. He'd clearly gotten the drop on her somehow and made the most of it. But tying her up wouldn't stop her from activating her powers when she woke up, "What did you do to her?"

The man looked at us like we were dumb, "I thought the mutant cure was created in this time."

My legs almost gave out in horror. Hisako's eyes started welling up with tears the moment it sank in what was said. I wouldn't believe it. It couldn't be true. The X-Men destroyed all of that crap. They said they did. Had they missed some?

Eddie reacted much more explosively than either of us.

"What?" He was beside himself. When the news about the mutant cure came out, he was more afraid of it than any of us, and now his best friend was powerless? Livid wasn't the word to describe him, "You did what!? YOU GAVE HER WHAT!?"

Before I could say or do anything myself, Eddie bolted off of his starting point, flying at Hisako's kidnapper as fast as he could. My boy wasn't much of a hand-to-hand guy, but there was no doubt in my mind he would have torn his head off if he'd hit him. He didn't, because we weren't the only ones on the scene with powers.

The moment Eddie went to attack, the kidnapper took a step back and dropped into a tear in reality, avoiding the wrath of Wing altogether. Another reality tear opened up in the air by Hisako, with the man landing on the bulldozer next to her.

A teleporter? We had to hit him fast and hard. The moment I saw him again, I took my shot. With a wave of his hand, he opened a portal that ate up my blast. It reappeared, firing from a place in the sky at Eddie. It nearly clipped him, but he somehow dodged it. It slowed him down before he could rush the kidnapper again though.

"You piece of shit!" Eddie spat hatefully. And why not? It wasn't like he had no reason, "You're a mutant and you erased her powers forever! How the FUCK could you do that to anyone else!?"

The kidnapper sneered at Eddie, "What are you talking about? 'Hope' is temporary. It lasts 12 hours and wears off if you don't keep taking it."

"What? That's bullshit. No, it's not," I said. It just came out a few months ago, before the X-Men shut it down. We watched every scrap of news on that crap when it first came out. It definitely took away powers for good, "It strips your powers, and that's that. There's no wearing off. It's permanent."

The guy seemed honestly confused by what I was saying, until suddenly it dawned on him, "That's... that actually makes sense from what I know about history. Well, it's not like that where I come from. She'll definitely get her powers back."

With those words, whether we could trust them or not, a weight lifted off of our shoulders. Hisako used her shoulders to dry her eyes before any more tears could leak out. At least we weren't dealing with a complete monster here.

Even Eddie calmed down, "Where you come from?" He parroted, his emotions having run the absolute limits in the last few minutes, "Dude, I'm sick of this. Who are you?"

The man didn't seem keen on identifying himself properly, "I guess if you have to call me something, you can call me... Skip, I guess."

My eyes went wide and my lips twitched, "Skip? You're kidding, right? You kidnapped my friend and had the balls to attack my school with a lame ass name like that?" This was a serious situation, but I couldn't help but laugh.

What kind of self-respecting asskicker would walk around and let themselves be called Skip in the 21st century? I hoped for his sake that wasn't his given name. Actually, no I didn't. It would be just another thing I could mock him about after I beat his ass.

I laughed. Eddie laughed. I hoped it made Hisako feel better where she was. It was a Paladin bonding moment. And then I was knocked flat on my ass from a fist that appeared out of thin air.

"Oh shit!" Eddie called out from above, "Bel, that dude just teleported his fist into your face!"

"I noticed!" I shouted. I could see a fist poking out of a tiny portal before it pulled back and the portal vanished. I got up off of the ground with a brand new bloody nose, "If you could get to Hisako the way you did, and you only wanted me, why didn't you just get me?"

"Because you always have someone around you," Skip said. I inferred from his tone of voice that he was somehow calling me a bitch for always having some kind of company around. He gestured to Eddie, "Case in point seeing that you brought your pal here to watch your back. When you're in your room, you have your little wolf thing with you. Also, you don't sleep."

He knew way too much for someone who I'd never seen before, "How have you been watching me?"

"I haven't been. Let's just say I got that information somewhere else, from a very reliable source."

That wasn't very helpful at all. Then again, we were supposedly enemies, "What do you want from me?" I asked.

"I want your death," Okay, we were definitely enemies, "I don't care about the rest of them," He said about my friends, which... actually did make me feel better. Not by much, though.

I didn't get it. I was a high school student. I wasn't even a real X-Man. Unless this guy was a Reaver or with the Facility, I had no idea what his deal was, "What did I do to you? Why are you trying to kill me? There are actual superheroes at that school who could fuck with your evil plans. Go after them!"

"I don't have any evil plans, you stupid little-!" Skip growled at me "I'm here to kill you, because 30 years from now, Bellamy Marcher, you destroy the Earth, and the entire galaxy!"

...Oh.

Well, hell then.