Knights of Xavier's (Part One)

Why was I the only one I knew who was able to fly anything that wasn't powered by someone's… powers?

Julian had ponied up the cash to rent a helicopter. An honest-to-goodness helicopter. He didn't rent a pilot, and honestly, I didn't want one to come with us, but I didn't want to fly the damn thing either. Most people who don't know anything about flying imagine that it's exciting, because if you mess up, you could die. But getting beyond that though, flying is really boring. Not only that, but flying a helicopter is loud. Like, obnoxiously loud.

We were pushing the weight limits for the thing with Santo riding along, which put me at a loss for how we were going to get everyone back once we busted Laura out. But those were problems for Future Bellamy to deal with. At the moment, I was just concerned with getting to Saberwolf before he was discovered and getting to Laura before something awful happened.

Well, something worse. She had already been shot in the head, for fuck's sake.

Just thinking about that made my blood boil. She was still alive, at least that was what Kimura had said. I couldn't imagine it. I hadn't seen just how much punishment she and Mister Logan could take by that point, so I had to take what Kimura said at face value; the evil, sadistic bitch.

The more I thought about what I knew of Laura, and what had happened, how she had been treated, even right in front of me, my mind started to go to some dark places. I could be a surly guy sometimes, but I was never that malicious. I couldn't imagine the thought processes of someone who was. All I knew was that they hurt my friend.

"-listening to me, Marcher?"

When I heard Santo, I cut my eyes toward the back of the helicopter where the others sat. From how everyone seemed to react, I must have had quite a look on my face. I turned forward and tried to fi my expression. It wasn't their fault. If anything, they were doing me a solid by helping me out as much as they had.

I turned to the side where Sooraya rode as my first passenger and felt really bad. What she must have been thinking, staring at my sour puss giving a death stare to the world in front of me for the last two hours.

"Sorry, guys. I'm just pissed. Really pissed," I explained as a way of apologizing, "I asked Laura not to go off on her own to try and take care of business. I asked her twice. I'm just... I don't know what's in her head. And I feel bad because I don't know how to really help her out."

"I believe the fact that you want to, and that it bothers you so much matters," Sooraya said. She had a really charming accent, "I say you should keep trying. You are doing the right thing."

I sighed as I kept my hands on the stick that steered the helicopter, "I don't think she wants me to try. I guess she doesn't trust me, or doesn't respect me, which is fair. After the shit she's been through, having my soft ass try to tell her what to do... I probably wouldn't listen to me either."

Cessily stretched forward, her head over my shoulder with a cattish smile on her face, "Oh, I don't know about that, Bel. If I were you, I wouldn't jump to that conclusion so fast. She's just... well, I probably shouldn't say."

No. I hated that. Don't bait me with information and then not tell me what it is. And like a sucker, I bit on it, "What? What is it?"

Cessily sat back in her seat properly, leaving me hanging, "Nope. It's not my place to say anything, and I might be wrong, so I'm just gonna shut up!"

Julian blew a raspberry from where he sat next to Cessily, "Pfft. I say she's just a space case. You'd have to have Blindfold dig into her head to help what's in there make sense. You can't help some people, Marcher," He concluded, crossing his arms resolutely. That was, until he got jabbed with a metal finger in the ribs, "Ow! What the hell, Cess?"

Once again, when Julian's douche levels started rising, Cessily was able to keep him in check, "Would you stop being a jerk? Laura doesn't deserve any of that. She doesn't even talk to you."

Julian waved his arms around as though she had made his argument for him, "Exactly! She doesn't talk to anyone! Not a word, ever! She's creepy! And since when are you friends with her?"

Cessily grimaced at the point her team's leader had made, "We're not really friends... but I got to spend some time with her when she hung around a bunch at the party, and at your house. She's nice. Quiet, but she's really nice. Plus, she's on Bellamy's team. And Bel is a solid guy."

I turned my head around for a moment to let them all know just how much hearing that meant to me, "That's, like, the second nicest thing anybody's ever said about me since I started going to Xavier's."

From where he sat on the other side of Cessily, Kevin took a moment from brooding out the window to chime in, "Are you serious? That's really sad."

It hit me deep how right he was, "Yeah... it is, isn't it?"

Before I could get too introspective, Julian too the center of attention once more, "Hold up a minute. Since when is liking Marcher a universal Hellions thing? When did we all stop hating him? Don't you remember? He shot me in the face before! Where's the loyalty? Be offended for me!"

I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to the front, and piloting the airborne machine we were all strapped inside of, "Are we still not past that yet? You had it coming, you dick! I apologized!"

"You didn't apologize to me!"

"...Well that's because you started it. I apologized to Santo."

"You're telling me you didn't egg him on?" Cessily asked with a raised silver eyebrow, "And Bellamy tried to bury the hatchet since then, so what's the big deal?"

That was odd to me, because back then, the mood toward me seemed a step under hostility, "Then why did you all seem so mad when I tried to say I was sorry?"

"I was never angry with you at all," Sooraya said. Which made sense, seeing as how she was the only one I got the feeling didn't want to beat me up at first, "I was aware of the circumstances. I was more disappointed, until you apologized anyway."

Cessily had a good enough excuse ready for me, "It was still pretty fresh, and even if we probably figured that Julian had started it in the first place, well," She trailed off in what I gathered, sight unseen, was a shrug, "He might be a jerk, but he's our jerk."

Santo, bless his heart, was a lot more direct about it, "Hey, I'm cool. Marcher's done nothing but make up for it since then. He bought me a pizza, then he threw that bitchin' party, and now this! He's actually got us doing real hero stuff! Not some simulated crap."

"-Which we can't even do anymore since the Danger Room ran off," Julian added, "Also a Marcher thing."

This was something Santo had just remembered, "Ohhhh, right. That's a point against him. But then he saved all our asses, so that's another point for him."

Julian scoffed, "He didn't save all of our asses by himself. I was there too," Two of his options for support exhausted, he attempted to extend his reach, "Kevin, Brian, back me up. All aboard the fuck Marcher train."

My face twisted up into some horrible, lemon-tasting expression, "I don't want any part of that train, thank you very much."

Julian's jumbled word attempt at trying to reword his statement was cut off by Brian, "I don't either. I like chicks, dude. And even if I didn't, I could do way better than Marcher."

Julian looked around, turning red as he attempted to take back what he said, "That's not what I-!"

"-Can we stop talking about running a train on Marcher?" Santo jumped in to take a cheap shot of his own before gesturing forward to Sooraya sitting with me, "For God's sake, there's a woman of faith on this flight!"

Kevin didn't pile on, unfortunately, leaving his leader's query for what it was meant to be taken as, "I mean, I don't like him. But I don't really know him either. You were kind of rough dragging me around back there," He finished, directed at me.

He received no sympathy from me, "Motherfuckers were shooting at us, and you kept ducking every time you heard a shot. We had to go," I explained. If I had to drag him by his collar to get him to move, so be it, "Us not dying is more important than you being comfortable with how I keep it from happening."

"Wow. Way to be ungrateful, Kevin," Santo snickered at his teammate who held up his hands in response as though he had offended me

"I wasn't! I was just saying!" Kevin defended, as if I cared one way or the other. I wasn't that petty. There were plenty of legit things to be mad about.

...Speaking which, I wasn't nearly as mad as I had been a few minutes ago. I wasn't the only one who noticed either.

Sooraya put a hand on my arm to get my attention. All I could see of her face was her eyes, but they seemed supportive, "Do you feel better now?"

I couldn't help but smile. I was right. Sooraya really was a nice person. How she wound up with the Hellions, I had no idea. There better have been a good story there, "I do actually. That's not good. I wanted to go in there all angry and ready to tear that place to shreds."

"I believe once we arrive you'll find all the motivation you need to get back to that point," She reasoned, making plenty of sense. Damn it, I didn't want anything about my mood to make sense, "But for now, all of that anger would only do you harm."

"-And nobody likes a major grump either, soooo..." Cessily trailed off.

I rolled my eyes and took a look at the signal I was following on my phone. It hadn't moved in about two hours, so they had a decent lead on us, if they expected a gaggle of students to follow them at all.

Either way, we still had plenty of flying time to deal with before it would be an issue.