Big City Field Trip (Part Two)

Hanging out on the front lawn of the mansion was really awkward when in the distance we could see and hear people picketing just outside. It was a good quarter mile from the front gate to the school itself, and just walking around the front lawn moving from building-to-building, you could hear them going on with their bullshit.

People singing revamped spirituals about how we're all going to hell. Awesome. Just what every kid wants to hear on a Monday morning.

"Could be worse, Bel," Hisako told me as we braved the distance to the gate, "They could be attacking."

A bite of anger gripped my heart at that, "We're going to take that and file it under a list of things titled, 'I wish a motherfucker would.'"

On top of the satisfaction I would take in blasting hostile individuals in the face, we had defenses, and my bestest A.I. friend was our security consultant. Attacking a bunch of stupid kids might have sounded good for opportunistic cowards, but that tune would probably change when a murderbot's chainsaw revved up within earshot of you.

Of course, it made going outside of the school very difficult, which was a problem, because it made catching the shuttle that ran from just outside the school gates to Salem Center a pain in the ass.

None of this stopped me and a handful of cohorts from trying our luck, however, because we were stupid kids, like I said. This particular motley crew included Megan (who came because I said I had a surprise for her), Noriko (who had to go to work in town), David (who wanted to hang out with his girlfriend Nori at the start of her shift), Hisako (who was getting stir crazy on campus), and Megan's teammates Ben and Nicky (who just wanted to go to the store for snacks) from trying our luck.

Fuck their picketing. We needed to go to town, and we were going while there while it was still light out and there were still running goddamn shuttles.

We got to the gate where I found Saberwolf, watching over the premises intently. All of the heckling didn't bother him in the slightest. If anything, he seemed bored. He would have been sleeping if he could have, "How are things, Wolf?" I asked.

"One person attempted to climb this morning," Wolf told me, "He was quickly persuaded that it was a poor idea."

I looked over, and sure enough, there was a little blood on the inside of the wall. There was no body though, and we didn't go under lockdown, so I guess Wolf just roughed him up a bit and threw him back out.

I nodded my approval. Good man... err, A.I., "I would ask you if you wanted to come with us, but you're clearly still on your shift," He normally only had to work night shifts, prowling the institute grounds for anything amiss. But it only made sense that during times like this, he would have to maintain order.

"You are all heading out?" He looked between the six of us, "...I was not given orders to keep students from leaving. Very well. I would advise caution, however."

I looked over at my present company, waiting for someone to decide to head back to the school. No one did. It looked like we were doing this, "Thanks, Wolf. Open the gate. We'll take our chances."

He opened the gate for us, and it was like a dog when its master crinkled a bag of treats. We didn't even make it out before they crowded it, making a point to keep from breaching the perimeter, lest Wolf have any excuse to tear their asses up. I would have loved to see it, but alas, no one was that dumb.

It still aggravated me to the core, and I took the opportunity to try and make things even worse... because stupid kid.

I stepped forward with a script already in my head and spoke up, ignoring the jeers, "You've been through this with the wolf already. This wall is the gun line," I said, stealing lines from the movie 'Life', slightly altered, "It runs this whole property. You are now outside of the gun line."

I needed someone to finish the line to egg me on further, and Nori didn't let me down, "Tell 'em about the gun line, boss."

I tried to fight down the smile Nori's playing along with my blatant reference threatened to put on my face, "Say what you want, but if you step through that gate, or over that wall without permission, you will be shot. You trip and fall through the bars, you will be shot. You spit, you pee, you so much as stick your johnson through the gate or over the wall, you will be shot."

I was daring-, no, I was begging anyone to call my bluff. We were taught to de-escalate encounters with civilians, but to hell with that. As stupid as it would have been, I would have welcomed nothing more than an outright donnybrook.

Of course, the mob didn't like the odds when it seemed like I didn't give two shits about their numerical superiority. Also, they weren't sure if Saberwolf would back us up. If they weren't afraid of us throwing our powers around, they were definitely afraid of being torn to shreds by him.

They parted like the Red Sea. It was splendid. We stepped right onto the shuttle without further issue, and as the driver pulled off, I rolled open the window and let off one more parting comment for my adoring public, "And if ONE of my packages from Amazon doesn't make it through because of you people, you don't have to worry about any kind of hell, because there will be hell to pay!"

I idly thought to myself as I sat down next to Megan that maybe that had been a little too much, "Think you scared them enough, Bel?" She said.

"I don't care," I grumbled, glaring out of the window, "Between the five of you, we have a girl who can make them hallucinate with a flap of her wings, a girl who can cover herself in freaky energy armor, a chick that has to wear limiters to keep from chucking electricity everywhere, a dude with a genius brain that knows everything everyone in the immediate vicinity knows, a dude with a flaming head, and a fucking werewolf."

Who in their right mind would mess with that? Even if they did outnumber us 40-to-6, every single one of us were good for handling at least 3, and at most, who knew?

"I'm not a werewolf, Bel," Nicky popped his head up from the seat behind me, pleading the case for his mutation.

I rolled my eyes. Specifics, "They don't know that, Nicky," Nor did they likely care.

Noriko scoffed from across the aisle where she sat with David, "Yeesh. You got a rock in your shoe or something? You are surly today."

"I'm surly every day. And that's why you all fucking love me."

David, ever the thoughtful one, hadn't enjoyed my lack of tact like Noriko had, "Still, I don't think escalating anything with people like that was the best idea. That's not what we're taught. We've got to be the bigger people."

My snark level had been turned up to 11 by this point, "I already am the bigger person, because I'm not spending my day standing outside of their house, school, or workplace telling them God wants them to die. Everything else that makes me better is just a bonus at that point."

Hisako gave everyone context that I didn't give her clearance to, "He's just extra-pissed because he had plans with Little Miss Pixie that fell through because of the picketers," I only scowled deeper at the truth.

It was announced that day that we could not leave the premises of Xavier's on our own, for fear that anti-mutant mobs outside would take a shot at us. Again, I wished a motherfucker would. It would likely be the last thing they ever did. Although, killing regular idiots would be different from offing U-Men and Reavers. Also, doing it in front of my school friends would probably go badly, even in self-defense. Not all of them knew how little I cared for the lives of my enemies, and most of them would react badly to it.

Megan reached over and ran her thumb across my cheek, the damnable way that she knew I liked, "Oh, Bel. It's okay," She cooed to pacify me.

"It's not okay," I insisted, trying to remain as grumpy as possible, despite wanting to relax into her touch, "I wanted to do something nice for you for once, with just us, and I can't because we need to be at least four-deep to leave campus."

"Aww..." Everyone else droned, trying and succeeding at getting under my skin.

"Shut up!" I snapped in return, not needing all of their crap.

Two's company, three's a crowd. Well, what did that make six? Not romantic, that was for sure.