Wandering around the institute and its surrounding areas, I managed to meet most of the X team in a few days. I saw Cyclops, playing American football rather briskly. He was wearing his non-combat version of goggles. So I don't understand how his opponents have the guts to try to take the ball away from him or push him around at all. After all, a second of points sliding off and part of the opposing team, as well as his own, could be gone. But what can you take from teenagers with superpowers and superdebilism?
I met the Night Serpent. Here he didn't have his own watch and was therefore, shall we say, not a star with most of the students. In general, it's funny how these teens can arise on the subject of how people can hate mutants and that it's just awful to treat a person like that because of their differences. While avoiding Kurt, who by the way is a pretty nice and cheerful kid. And this despite the fact that some people openly expressed their disgust at his appearance. Although the fact that he looks quite a bit like a demon could certainly play into it. But in the comics his appearance was explained by the demonic nature of his father and the blue skin of his mother, but I think that in this world, if Kurt runs to Mystique for child support, he's unlikely to succeed. Still, if Prof is young here, the blue-skinned girl should be like Lawrence's version at least in character. Then she wouldn't abandon her offspring, especially considering her complexes about her appearance. And given her experience, which should have explained what an arsehole awaits her child who is dropped off at the church door, she would never have parted with him. At least it wasn't a Catholic church, because given the morals of their priests, in five or six years they would have started exorcising demons from under his tail with the help of unconventional practices.
Anyway, Kurt and I got together on the subject of interests in film, music, literature and superheroes. From him, incidentally, I learned that a good neighbour was already being spotted in this world. He's already gaining fame little by little, but hasn't really caught the public's attention yet. I don't think I'd have heard of him for another couple of months for sure, if it weren't for Kurt's fanatical tracking of news of any supers. Oh, you should have seen his eyes when he talked about Iron Man! He bragged, by the way, that it was his hobby that helped him find some of the mutants. After Stark's announcement of his heroic alter ego, there was quite an increase in young mutants going heroic at night. Their superpowers were recorded on cameras, and people greedy for views posted the footage on YouTube. Kurt, without even thinking about it, told me about how, after his leads, the prof found the right mutant using Cerebro. But what can I say to that? The boy was too happy about his new friend and did not even think about secrecy. To him, if I'm a mutant, I'm almost a brother. And it doesn't matter that if any country's intelligence services knew about it, a couple of drones would fly here at once with an order to surrender or get a couple of missiles on the house.
«But you couldn't always be so lucky, could you? - I asked, looking at the monitor, which had a playlist of videos open that took him to the mutants.
«Yeah, I've had some bad luck, but it's only been a couple of things. For example, one kid stole his father's test designs and passed it off as his superpowers, others have acted out a "telepathic man was able to take control of the robbers' bodies" scene, and there was another case where a real mutant was spotted," he said, including videos of these "heroes". - Most people thought it was just cool special effects, but I recognise a mutant immediately.
«So if he's a mutant, how can it be a failure? - I asked, not quite understanding the logic of his words.
«Look at it first. - He switched the sound to the speakers.
I even got a glimpse at the beginning that it was familiar, but then when the song started, I wanted to fall under the ground.
«It's the only mutant video that's ever been so popular. It has over 500,000,000 views! And yes, at first it's unclear why it's on this playlist, but after the middle you'll understand. It's where the singer shows off his mutant powers.
Yes, I know what's coming in the middle of this video, because they were showing me on the screen - I wanted to shout out and curtail this shame of my life as soon as possible. But I was stopped by the thought that this way I would arouse suspicion, and now no one knows about my ability and no one will be able to combine these two images in his head.
Nodding and trying to show the most surprised face possible, I managed to endure this shame until the end. It even seemed to me that during these minutes the player's mind worked a couple of times and calmed me down, preventing me from punching my fist through the monitor and running away from here in an unknown direction.
«Still, why is this a failure? - I asked again with genuine interest.
«The professor couldn't find him on American soil. That means he used someone else's servers to make the network trail go to the wrong place," he replied sadly.
«Well, he didn't want to be found. Especially since he didn't risk himself, and some people still believe it's a graph. - Whew, thank you, system. So I'm invisible to telepaths now? Then how come he didn't burn me with Lebo's help? Logically, what's to stop him from seeing me through Gambit's eyes? Hmmm... as an option: perhaps the pro is not good at working with those whose thoughts are in complete disynchronisation. Simply put, stoned drunks. That is to say, it is very easy to suggest something to such people because of the loss of any brain defence, but to read their thoughts or to connect to them is already a problem. All hail booze and cocaine.
«Did you find the clip funny, too? Everyone here has seen it at least 2-3 times. Some of them even decided to make their own. But the professor forbade them. And if you remember what happened in the first days after I showed it to the guys... horror. One group of kids managed to escape from the institute and steal a fox from the zoo to bring it to David. He can talk to animals. Why? I don't know either. But, because when they got to David's room, they were so shitfaced that they ripped the door open and threw the fox inside, they passed out after a minute. That, by the way, saved them from Logan, who came in at 4am ready to kill. After that we all the institute caught the poor animal, which was in utter terror.
Inwardly I even chuckled at how close they were to repeating the exploits of their star.
After saying goodbye to Kurt, I went to Hank's to take the tests I had promised.
Every morning I suffered from the nasty birds that screamed under my window. I don't know how the other students tolerated them, or perhaps I was the only one so lucky, but it was hell. Otherwise, my days went pretty well and monotonously during the week: a walk through the mini forest surrounding the institute in the morning, then a meeting with Kurt, then lab tests and training with Trevor. This was all, of course, diluted by conversations with the professor about my relocation to the institute. I also had a good chat with Jean. I think she chatted with me not because of interest, but because of the opportunity to just talk to someone close to your age without having to hear all of their thoughts. Although, considering the looks Scott threw at me after these conversations, I was getting funny. He was trying so hard to look threatening, but still blended in pretty quickly after the third time we looked at each other. When I got tired of it, I went up to him to talk to him, cranking up my intimidation aura to maximum. He couldn't see my eyes changing colour through his red lenses when I activated it.
«Did I do something to you? - I approach him, looking at him questioningly.
«N... don't go near Jean," Scott said, trying to keep a nonchalant look.
He may not be shaking, and I can't see his gaze through his glasses, but I know it's more of a request than it should be. I give him credit - not many people could stand up under full intimidation and keep their trousers dry. And considering that he's also a teenager with milk on his lips and has only seen death on the news, I kind of respect him a little bit. Though that might be because I usually used it with full transformation, and now it's not showing its full power.
«Well, it's not like I was running around the institute looking for her. She's the one who started the conversation with me. And who do you think you are, anyway, to make conditions on others? - I said, shortening the distance so that we were only about thirty centimetres apart.
«I'm her boyfriend! - his voice was almost a shout.
Wow, we've raised our tone. I wonder if he's trying to convince me or himself.
«И?
«And? - Cyclops didn't understand.
«Well, I still haven't heard a reason why you can tell her who she can socialise with. Or do you think otherwise?
«No, but-" Summers stammered, suddenly quick to point out the lack of arguments in his defence.
When I saw Logan coming toward us, I immediately turned off the intimidation and backed away from Scott.
«Are you in trouble? - He asked with his usual scowl on his face. I could have sworn the only thing he smiled at these days was beer.
«No," Scott said with relief. Because for him, the only way to prove he was right was to fight. And even without seeing my powers, one aura was enough for him to assess his chances of winning.
«No.
«Then, Scott, get to class - you've got less than five minutes to go.
Logan showed up just in the nick of time. Just when I was about to kick Summers' arse. I thought that before I noticed the red hair in the crowd of onlookers who'd gathered to watch the brawl, the owner of which was quickly leaving the scene. I can see how Wolverine was able to solve our problem in such a timely manner.
***
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