Regenerate | X-Men/Avengers - Pt. 1

Ch. 20

My bedroom door slams so hard the lamp on my desk tips off and onto the floor. I stare hard at the door, wishing I could blow it open again at will. Stupid idiot. Stupid, gullible, insecure, jerk.

Backing away from the door I immediately trip over my shoes left lying by the bed, and hit my head on the mattress' edge. One shoe hits the wall, but the other trips me again out of spite, so I kick it across the room then turn around and kick the mattress too.

He'll be back soon, he has to be. He's too dumb to last on his own and too smart to believe fellow idiots for long. I sit down hard on the floor, cross my legs, and concentrate, eyes closed. Static buzzes around my head, but its faintness fizzles out like a lost radio signal. I should've been able to stop him this time. I could've grabbed him and jumped, just jumped back to the bus and forced him on. Why didn't I do that, why didn't I try harder to stop him? I just yelled at him. I'm the only person he trusted, and I blew it.

Drained, I slouch against the bed. Rolling my head to the side I stare at one of my shoes lying on its side a few feet away from the lamp. Who am I kidding?

"What?" I demand of a knock at my door.

Logan sighs through his nose as he enters. "I'm sorry."

"Wasn't your fault." I run my fingers over the slopes of my fingernails. "Is Xavier looking for him?"

"Yeah."

"What happens if he finds him?"

"Then we go get him."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that. He forgot to pack up his room before he went. Can't leave until he's packed."

That reminds me. Leaning to the side, I hook my finger in my bag's strap and pull it towards me.

"He used that to text whoever picked him up, I'm sure," I say, tossing Logan Vince's phone. I'm going to have to call Matt about dropping the plan. Well, I'm going to have to call Matt about a lot of things.

Logan examines the phone broodingly. "Look...I'm not going to be here this summer, I'm taking off."

Take me with you, I'm dying to beg.

"You gonna be alright?"

Disappointed, but not surprised. Since Scott and Jean announced their wedding I've been expecting something like this. "Have a good vacation."

It was the best I could do, but he still sighs. "We'll see."

Matt turned into a man when he put this gown on a year ago, and I wonder if this means I've finally stopped being a girl. When they're thrown, I drop my cap on the ground and start walking back to the building. Logan's probably looking for me so I hide in the crowd then turn invisible. No one seems to notice.

In the locker room I shed the baggy costume and put on my suit. Like a second skin it fits perfectly feeling comfortable and cool. With a sigh of relief I look in the mirror. It shows me nothing and I laugh. Still invisible.

Danger hums. Her intangible fingers marionette my aggressors, clutching them, swarming them. I let her do her worst, and in reply she gives me the simplest objective: get into a room that has no entrance. Except the walls are nearly impossible to phase through and there are several acres of deadly fighters between here and there. Three of my three hundred aggressors have been in the room and will know what it looks like from the inside. Danger probably laughs, but only to herself.

As I dance through the flurry of fists and masked faces, making my way across the short distance, I keep my world quiet and my mind open. Three minds, there are three minds in here that can give me an image of the room. I slip around figures all restless with virtual life, all trying to crush me down, hold me back, force me to lose. Finding him at last, I clasp a hand over the first vulnerable mind. He shouts and I quickly let go. He's seen the floor, the literal carpet of the objective room, and nothing else. Highly unhelpful.