Fighting the Still Life (Part Four)

During the tail end of summer, it was lonely at school. There weren't a whole lot of people around that I knew to do stuff with. There was Nicky from the Paragons, Josh and Noriko from the New Mutants, but we weren't great friends.

Laura was off somewhere with Mister Logan, probably on some bonding excursion for fathers and daughters… brothers and sisters… err, DNA originals and clones. This gave me plenty of time alone with my thoughts, which was always a dangerous thing.

There were a lot of issues for me to deal with when school started up again. And it wasn't just the me being crazy thing, or the being a better boyfriend to Pixie thing. Those were things I needed to deal with, but I already had things in mind for those.

Having some time away from the institute after losing Miss Pryde could have only done the Paladins good, but we still didn't have an advisor. None of us had ever brought it up, and none of us wanted to, but the fact was that we needed one. That would be an uncomfortable thing to deal with once it happened, both for us and whoever was unlucky enough to be slotted in to look out for us.

Then there was me and Hisako basically being X-Men reserves. I hadn't forgotten that discovery. We were basically forced to step up to the plate or die on Breakworld, and now the X-Men knew we could deal with it. We weren't supposed to have to, not yet at least, but who was Mister Summers kidding? Whether it was designed or not, we would be on the front lines again sooner rather than later.

Until then, I was in charge. Legitimately in charge. Oh joy. I'd dabbled around with it around the end of the school year, but who knew how long it would last from here on out. Things were going to get harder before they got any easier... if they ever got easier.

"Oh yeah, you're the new hotshot big-shit around here now, just like Frost said, right? For someone who's supposed to be badass, you're an insecure pussy."

That stray thought caused me to stop and look around. That couldn't have been me thinking to myself. It didn't sound like my voice. It was a dude voice, but therein lay an inconsistency. I didn't know any dude telepaths. Ruth, Miss Frost, the Cuckoos – all the telepaths I knew were women.

Not to say that there weren't dude telepaths, but hell if I knew any.

...And that did seem like something I would say to myself when I caught myself in my feelings, or indeed acted like a pussy about something.

Cool. Just more evidence that I was losing my shit. The more I thought about it, the more my going to this school shrink seemed like a good idea. Boy did I need a friend at the moment. But sometimes, when you want something really bad, the universe provides.

Without fanfare, without a word, Saberwolf wandered into the room and plopped himself down on the floor at the foot of my bed.

For months, months, Wolf had insisted that the stay at Xavier's was temporary. He always said that when he had the opportunity he would go wherever he wanted and do whatever he wanted; that he would not hang out with me like a pet forever, not that I would ever personally consider him one.

We were square now, if pride were the thing keeping him around. I'd freed him from captivity, he'd helped me free one of my friends from captivity. I'd saved his life, he'd saved my life. I expected him to shove off after Forge was done with him, and yet there he was, as though leaving had never crossed his mind.

I just stared at him for several seconds, eyebrow raised, until I finally broke out in a grin.

"...Welcome back, buddy," I said before changing my statement, "No. Welcome home."

That was all it took to piss off the cantankerous A.I., "Be quiet," He demanded. However, I didn't let up.

"I knew you loved me."

"I told you to be quiet."

"You could have been anywhere in the world right now, but you're here with me," I continued to insist, hand on my heart, "Mister Logan had the Blackbird. He could have dropped you anywhere your little synthetic heart desired, but you came back to me!"

"I hate you."

"Aw, you're my friend too, Saberwolf," The panel of his back opened up to reveal his chainsaw, "I know you tend to think of yourself as a one-man wolf pack. But when you met me, you knew I was one of your own, and you thought to yourself, 'Could it be?' And now you know for sure. Your wolf pack had grown by one," By now the chainsaw was actively revving, held in the grasp of his tail, "Now there are two of us in the wolf pack. You were alone in the pack, and then I joined in later. Now it's two of us wolves, running around the world together, tearing shit up."

He could threaten me all he wanted. I knew full well he wasn't going to Texas Chainsaw Massacre me indoors and mess up the walls and the floor and the bed, and he did too. After all, my Wolf had home training.

When he put the weapon away, I hopped up from the bed and walked toward him slowly, my arms extended wide, "Aww... get ready, big guy! I'm coming in for a hug. Here comes the Bro Train, pulling into Friendship Junction!"

"Yes. Give me a hug," Wolf said, standing up and suddenly becoming very sharp and pointy, "I can think of nothing I would rather do right now."

It was at that point I noticed that the dangerous edges he used to have now folded in flatly to make him safer to the touch, "...Those are new," I got closer to poke at the razor-sharp additions to his form, "Did you get a new body? I thought you were just going in for repairs! I didn't think you'd get hooked up with new stuff!"

Wolf had always been kind of dangerous to touch. He had a lot of edges that could cut you open if you weren't paying attention. Now though, he still had them, but they were retractable, making him much sleeker when he wanted to be. That was awesome.

"It is new armor," Wolf said, putting his sharp bits away, "I asked Forge for upgrades. His understanding of my systems is... frightening. All he needed was a look at my inner workings to repair my injuries and upgrade me."

Forge did all of this over the course of a few days. That was impressive. Wolf seemed impressed as well, and that wasn't an easy thing to do, "Huh. Maybe that guy should be a teacher or something? Then maybe I could learn to fix you myself."

Wolf shook his head and paced over to my Playstation and box full of games to find something for the two of us to play together, "He has said that he is a terrible teacher. His knowledge is intuitive, not something that he can necessarily show someone else."

Damn. Well, we couldn't always get what we wanted. I'd just have to keep studying on my own and in classes to get my technological know-how, as slow-going as it was.

I kicked my feet up to relax, and Wolf linked up with the Playstation to get our game going. No point in procrastinating in getting back to the school swing of things, "I'm glad you're here. This place is a lot creepier without all of the other students around," I told him, "I have to walk around and look to find any people, but it feels like someone's watching me all the time. It's weird."

Wolf lazily flicked his tail as we set the match up in our fighting game, "I would say that you are being paranoid, but history has proven in the past that this is not often the case with you. Be vigilant," He warned.

I scoffed as our bout began loading up to play, "Of course. I never sleep, because sleep is the cousin of death. Have you learned nothing from Nas?" Wolf didn't react past turning his head to look at me, as if to ask what the hell I was talking about. I was disappointed, "...All of my friends are uncultured swine."