Chapter 88

(Happy Thursday!)

We were on the phone with Fury shortly after I watched the video, and as you might've guessed, the man was not pleased by the recent development.

"It's Kelly," Fury grunted. "He's one of the hundreds Xavier interacted with. I've been running my agents ragged, trying to contain the fallout of Xavier's overzealous…lobbying, but some things slip through the crack. You've seen the video; you know why he's out for blood."

I shook my head. Xavier ripped out the one thing that drove Kelly, and his life fell apart.

Jean made a face at Fury's comment.

She'd told me of her bold pronouncement of maintaining Xavier's sphere of influence, but that remained an impossible dream with her current level of control.

"I thought I had more time," she said. "The bindings were supposed to come loose slowly, not all at once."

"You couldn't have known," I said to Jean, then turned back to Fury. "I'm guessing you've taken the video down already?"

"Of course, and stopped all major news sites from running it. But even then, there's no putting the genie back in the bottle," Fury said. "But that's not the worst part of all of this. I think he might've had help."

My mouth went dry. "Well, that's uplifting."

"He slipped out of an interview he scheduled earlier tonight just before we got to him," he said. "A few hours later, this went live."

"He had to know he was tantamount to political suicide," I said.

"People disappear when government spooks show up," Rin chipped in, earning a look from Jean and myself.

"I Just don't think he cares anymore," Jean said. "He's lost everything."

 "I have agents out there, looking for him," Fury said. "In the meantime, I was hoping you could make sure your old friends are safe."

My eyes widened. "Wait, what? You know where they are?"

"McTaggart reached out a while back and offered up her home as a semi-permanent residence after hearing about Charles passing. Dr. Hank popped over a few days back to keep tabs on them. Considering what just happened and the demon attack, I think at least one of you should be with them."

I scratched the back of my head, letting out an awkward laugh. "I don't know who they'll be more excited to see, me or her?"

Jean folded her arms. "It's too soon."

"If you're not up to it, I can send a few teams over," he said, "but If I am being honest…"

"It'll be like feeding them to the wolves if something happened," I completed for him and looked at Jean.

'I would've preferred not to have to deal with this today. You and I just started training, but…'

She bit her lip. 'I have to face them eventually.'

"Alright. Tell the blue man we're on our way," I said. I asked about the potential global fallout of outing Xavier, but Fury's agents have heard nothing concrete yet. They expect a global outrage and push towards mutant containment, but Fury suspected they'll change their tune when it goes public that mutants are the only class powerful enough to put up a fight against the demons. But he was on the fence about raising a global panic. He was more interested in taking a few more influential leaders aside and giving them a rundown.

"Tell the world we have a full-blown demonic emergence," I laughed. "That ought to be interesting."

We portaled over to the suburbs of New York and took a cab down to McTaggert's house.

Rin, Jean, and I stood before the house, more or less ready for the worst but optimistic for the best.

The door flung open before I reached for it, and I saw a familiar face.

Suffice it to say, he was not pleased at all that I was here.

"You little shit!" Logan swung, claws out. I weaved under the blow quite easily before I righted myself.

"Now, hold on now," I began, but he was not ready to listen. My ears picked up on voices coming from the house, and one by one, the X-Men old enough to fight milled out of the house.

Scott Summers, Bobby Drake, and Kitty Pryde.

Logan and I were on the lawn scrapping—well, it was more like I was dodging, and he was swinging at me with everything he had.

I saw Scott lock eyes with Jean in the corner of my eyes, then look away.

She opened her mouth to say something but stopped herself.

Scott set his jaw at her response and raised his hand to his visor, ready to fire.

Rin, who brought his club along, glared at the kid as if daring him to make a move.

Bobby and Kitty looked equally peeved.

Tired of the bullshit, I went on the attack. I grabbed Logan's clawed hand as it came down and checked his other one coming in for a sneaky jab. He tried to head-butt me, but I beat him to the punch before heaving his whole body and slamming him hard into the floor.

Scott fired a beam at me, and I blocked with the flat side of Arbiter's axehead. The energy shoved me back several paces, and I heard Cyclops yell in the background.

"Come on, what are you waiting for! Did you forget he did? The Professor is dead."

Oh, Hell No!

I immediately went intangible. I stepped forward, sprinting until I arrived behind Scott. Before the boy could react, I quickly shoved him to the ground, face facing the deck so that he couldn't laser me or anybody else. I had one of his hands twisted. Any more pressure would've popped them out of their socket. 

The kid released a startled yell, and everyone except for Jean and Rin was surprised. The latter simply shook his head at the display.

"Looks like the boss didn't need me after all."

Bobby and Kitty looked like they were about to jump me, but all it took was a simple glare to pin them in place. Logan was on his feet again, eyes shifting from Rin to me. He seemed to ignore Jean entirely.

I twisted Scott's hand ever so slightly, eliciting another cry from the kid.

"All of y'all need to settle down before you force me to do something we'll all regret," I said. "Yes, your mansion is gone, and Yes, the Professor is dead. But you're all forgetting that he fucking deserved it. He put us all in this fucking position, to begin with, and has given every mutant hater good reason to think all of you are just as bad as him."

"What are you going on about?" Logan demanded.

"Haven't any of you seen the video the Senator recorded?"

From the looks I got, I took it as a No.

A chuckle bubbled from my throat. "You have no idea the shitstorm coming your way, do you?"

"You're lying!" Scott yelled. "You've always lied. You might fool everybody with your eyes, but I know a snake when I see one. You turned Jean against us because you hate me, and then you killed the Professor because he saw you for what you are. You got rid of Piotr and Ilyana because you couldn't beat the big guy in a fight, and now you're here because you want the X-Men. I call the shots now, and you cannot have them!"

"Just...Wow," I muttered, taken aback. "Does he really speak for all of you?"

Bobby looked conflicted, and Kitty offered up an explanation. "He and Bobby were in the fight until the end, and they saw you fighting Piotr. You didn't stop even when Ilyana asked you to."

I raised a brow at Bobby. "'And Dante is a murderhobo just because' is what you got from that interaction?"

Bobby set his jaw. "Things were fuzzy that night. I don't…"

"Come on, Bobby, don't back down now. For all we know, Piotr might be dead!" Scott barked, trying to wriggle out of my arm lock. I shoved him back to the ground.

"He's not by the way," I said. "He's recuperating, and if you caught that fight like you claim you did, I'm sure you didn't miss the part where he fucking Barbecued me like I was yesterday's steak!" I pulled up my shirt, showing them my raw side. It was covered in third-degree burns that had a wide range of colours flowing through them.

I gathered it was the cosmic energy.

 They all looked away except Logan.

 "You can't heal?"

"Not this particular wound," I said. "One guess as to why I can't?"

"Xavier might hold a lot of blame for what happened that night," Logan said, "but you're not innocent, either. Ilyana is god knows where, John is MIA, and you shot me with a sniper and threw me so far out that I spent the better part of the week getting back home! Who knows what could've happened?"

"Dr. Hank was here, no?" I asked.

"Yes, I was," I heard a deep voice rumble behind me. Dr. Hank looked the same, dressed in a lab coat, bespectacled, with a chunky tablet in his hand.

 "It's good to see you again, Dante," he said. "If you would please, unhand Scott. I promise he'll behave."

I looked down at the struggling kid, tempted to snap his hand for all of the grief he's given me, but I begrudgingly let him go half-expecting some reprisal, but the kid held himself back surprisingly.

"Thank you," Hank said, then his face twisted into a complicated frown. "There is much to discuss."

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