Just Because You're Paranoid (Part Three)

Technology from the Shi'ar Empire, she said. Fortunately, this wasn't restricted information, and our library was awesome.

Man, aliens were scary. There were a few species that I was sucked into checking out as clickbait. The Shi'ar in comparison to some of them weren't so scary, just badass.

These guys were apparently the big dogs in the universe, to say the least. They had countless planets under their domain and a whole galaxy named after them.

Boy, if that didn't make you feel small...

I pulled back away from the computer screen and rubbed my eyes. I had been there since class had let out, an hour by that point.

Miss Pryde appeared and rolled a seat next to me to sit down. She didn't say anything at first, she just checked on what I was reading on the screen and scanning my notes.

I didn't care. It wasn't like I was watching porn.

She slid my notes aside and sighed, "Bellamy, you have to stop."

I gave her a look to let her know that reasoning wasn't going to fly, "I have to? Why?" That was a hard stance to take for only what could be technically considered me studying ahead, "I'm literally not doing anything but research. I'm not running around with a pitchfork and a torch trying to burn the Danger Room."

"Okay, bad wording," My teacher added in exasperation. She couldn't be mad at me for the sort of initiative that was normally supposed to be commended, even if she didn't agree with why, "We checked everything that we could. I know you know that. If there's a problem, we would have found it."

Once again, that was a nice thought. It wasn't a good enough reason for me, "Fine. If I'm wrong, nothing bad's going to happen, so who cares if I try and read up on this stuff?" I asked, flipping through a few papers I'd written on, "If you're wrong, some really nasty shit is going to happen. Sorry about the language."

"If you keep talking about it, you might freak some kids out. You're freaking yourself out."

"No one believes me anyway," I grumbled, still sore on that point, even though I had accepted it by then, "And I don't know if you've noticed, but my people skills could use some work. So I wouldn't exactly have an army of paranoid students behind me, even if I could convince someone."

I had no idea what good that would do anyway. Apparently this school had something of a student uprising before. It had not gone well for anyone involved.

If the staff thought something like that was happening again, and that I was behind it - which would not have been by design, they would smash me.

I'm not exaggerating. They would have torn my ass to pieces if they thought I was trying to start a riot with a bunch of superpowered kids.

I shook that thought off when Miss Pryde put a hand put a hand on my arm. There was a worried look on her face, "Do you think we can't protect you? I know what happened with the Reavers was a… major screw-up."

She could stop right there. I didn't blame anyone for that. Crazy, racist terrorists were going to do what crazy, racist terrorists were going to do. Unless she was omnipotent, she was never going to be able to anticipate that happening.

"I don't hold that against this place. Nobody was around for that," I said. I didn't even know she felt guilty about that. I came out fine… mostly, "If any of you were there, I'm sure it wouldn't have gone down like that. But in there? With a machine that can literally make anything appear right in front of you?" Miss Pryde nodded, knowing what I was getting at. Either she had seen the worst that could be made, or knew what was possible, "It's a scary enough idea when someone's behind the controls. But we trust all of you, so no one ever thinks about what could happen if someone who didn't have our best interests was able to work that thing."

Or if it started to work itself. I left that part unsaid. I had beaten that dead horse down to the skeleton.

"What can I do to convince you that everything is okay?"

Wow. You were really going to hand me a blank check like that, huh? Alright then, "…Replace the central computer in the Danger Room," I ventured to ask.

A less violent, less satisfying version of my original plan. I had a feeling that asking her to let me blow the goddamn thing up wouldn't go over so smoothly.

Lo and behold, Miss Pryde actually looked like she was thinking it over! I didn't want to get my hopes up, but even if she gave me a no, it wouldn't be as hard a no as I'd expected, which left room for future improvement.

She worked her mouth around for the longest time without opening it, as though she were reediting what she wanted to say just before she could speak, "It's… doable. It's a complete pain in the ass, but it's doable," My jaw dropped. Had that really worked? "We would have to have all of the holograms and setting combinations uploaded into the new one, which would take forever, once I find out how to do it. Then we would have to get into the hardware and replace it without damaging anything-."

She was going to do it herself? Was she really that good with computer stuff? Yeah, yeah, anything that needed to be done then. It didn't matter if I had to learn how to trap part of a star with my bare hands for whatever reason. I was in, "Whatever. I don't care. I'll help if you'll let me. I'll do it myself if someone can tell me how. No one else even needs to get involved."

I sounded too eager, talking way too fast. It was not a good look. Oh well. I didn't have to try and be cool in front of a teacher, even if she was only 5 or 6 years older than me.

…Yes I did. I'm not even going to try and lie about that.

My enthusiasm was clear and evident for Miss Pryde to see. If she needed any more of a push to go ahead with what I was asking, that was it, "You know, it's going to be really hard, and you're not getting extra credit for helping."

"Extra credit is for scrubs," I blurted out distastefully. That was almost insulting if I didn't know she meant it as a joke. I didn't need a hand-out assignment to keep my grades up. I was doing great so far this year.

"Fine, I'll see what I can do," She put her hand out for me to shake. When I went to do so, she held it up in a stalling gesture, "I'll just have you know now, I want something in exchange for this, because I'm going to have to jump through some hoops, but I'll talk to you about it later."

"Done," I said without hesitation. This time, she let me seal the deal and shake her hand.

Yes! Problem solving in a positive manner, without violence and chicanery! It's a thing, kids! Your voice can make a difference! Just as long as you know how to subtly strong-arm an adult with actual influence into hearing you out.

…I never said all positive problem-solving is morally upstanding.