Tearful reunion

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"Why not?" I asked, getting sick of rejection.

Why won’t they just let me tag along? Why does everything have to be so complicated?

"You seem to be a smart young man, Peter, so I’ll be honest with you. I don’t like the idea of sending children to fight my battles." The professor responded.

"But I’m not a child; I’m stronger than-"

"Which you very well might be, but I will not put your life at risk." He looked like he had made up his mind, I have to push him aggressively.

"I will absolutely find Magneto. With or without your help!" I said loudly. It was a façade, I had no idea what I would do if they said no, time was running out and I had no leads. The X-Men were my best chance at saving Theo.

"You are free to do what you want, but I will not let a young boy get in harm’s way. Not on my watch." The professor called my bluff.

‘Shit…is this really how it’s going to go down!’

I glanced at Moe, who remained silent.

"Look I can take care of myself...just take me with you!" I pleaded one more time.

"I’m afraid that won’t be possible." He left no room for discussion.

I slumped my shoulders, I couldn’t believe that they would say no to me like I was a child.

Moe placed a hand on my shoulder and said,

"Well…thanks for taking time to meet with us anyway, Charles, I really appreciate it."

Sigh

‘What a disappointing result!’ I thought to myself.

It wasn’t supposed to go down like this.

"Not at all, Moe, it’s nice seeing old friends again!" The professor then turned to me,

"I’m sorry, young man, it's not something I can allow in good conscience. I promise you, we will save your friend; do not worry."

Is this how Theo’s sister Jane felt when I promised her, this awful feeling of helplessness.

I nodded weakly. There was nothing I could say to convince him otherwise.

It was useless to argue anymore, and it would only look pathetic.

"Thank you for understanding, Peter."

‘Of course…you left me no other choice.’

"Well alright then, that’s settled. Peter, shall we get going?" Moe said to me,

I gave a weak nod. This was not how I thought this meeting would go down.

The least I could do now was reveal all the information I had on Magneto, they had the best shot at rescuing Theo now.

"Magneto... has a mutant who could use flames and another shapeshifting blue mutant with him. I don't know the full details. I think he’s going for the easy checkmate. So that means no more prison breaks. At least not until humanity dies, then he can take his time rescuing his compatriots."

The professor was scratching his chin and said, "I see. Thank you for this information."

I nodded.

I scanned the room. Wolverine was standing up now, he seemed alright, though he let out a growl when we made eye contact.

Jean Grey was talking to Scott Summers. They were discussing the strategies for the rescue mission, and both were ignoring me for the time being.

Storm was nervously looking at the professor, but behind her fear was determination.

Sigh

"I’m sorry for provoking you." I apologized to Wolverine. He didn’t say anything, just a simple grunt.

"I’m sorry for insulting your team, I didn’t mean to. You have a wonderful institute and thanks for trying to save my friend!"

"Thank you, Peter!" He offered his hand, I walked up to him and shook it.

"My offer still stands, you know. I think you would fit right in."

"Thank you, but I’m good."

I headed back to where Moe was and said, "Let's go Moe." Moe replied in his usual cheery tone, "Sure thing! Charles, nice catching up again, see you later."

Charles Xavier smiled at him and said, "Till we meet again, old friend."

We started to leave.

Sigh

‘Maybe Moe could help me out... or maybe he has someone else who could help me locate Theo-’

KNOCK KNOCK

"Come in." The professor said,

The door opened to reveal a woman, one that I recognized immediately.

She was black, had curly hair, and looked much better than she did the last time I saw her. That was when I gave her a bag full of money and some kind words.

"Professor, we were wondering when the class would begin..." She stopped speaking when she saw me.

"Ah yes, Faith, I’ll be there in a second."

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"Is that you?...................Peter?" Faith couldn’t believe her eyes, and neither could I.

Never did I expect to see her again, let alone here of all places.

"Faith?" I muttered.

Realizing that it really was me, she ran up to me and hugged me.

"I can’t believe you’re here! I wanted to thank you…..for saving me. I wanted to say so many things to you, but I…I didn’t know where to find you!"

I couldn’t believe it. It really was her.

"I’m sorry, do you two know each other?" Storm looked puzzled at Faith’s emotional outburst.

"Yes! Yes! Peter was the one…he’s the one who saved me!"

Everyone in the room started looking at each other. The professor was more shocked than the others,

"How are you doing, Faith?" I ask with joy. I was beyond happy that she was alive and well, not to mention studying here.

"I’m good—more than good, actually. After everything, I decided to start working...a waitressing job. So many things happened since the last time we met.. I bounced around living from place to place…. Eventually I took your advice to get some education…that’s how I ended up here. Long story short I caught the eye of Miss Munroe and she decided to enroll me here." She spoke quickly, attempting to summarize everything in a single breath.

"Woah... it seems like you’ve been living quite the adventurous life!" I say.

I was afraid she would fall into the hands of another evil man after her emancipation. People like Curtis were a dime a dozen, but fortunately, these good people helped her.

I turned to Storm and thanked her, "Thank you, ma'am...I...thank you!"

She seemed confused at the sudden turn of events but understood the gist of it,

"So you were the one who saved her... You’re Peter." She came to a slow realization.

I nodded.

"Well that changes things…doesn’t it…chuck." Wolverine slowly said to the professor.

The professor didn’t comment, instead being content to study me again.

"When she told her story to me... I expected you to be-" Storm started,

"Bigger?’ I reply jokingly.

"More mature, actually." She said with a smile of her own.

Cyclops chipped in with his own opinion,

"Well this does change things... I mean he’s not some naïve kid, trying to play hero and he did save Faith from that gnarly situation. I say we give him a shot."

"Despite his manners." He added a few seconds later.

"I…I...agree...if he’s the person that Faith mentioned then he…can take care of himself…I think we owe it to him to give him a chance!" Jean Grey agreed with newfound enthusiasm.

Storm spoke out, "Yes…he saved one of us at her weakest, I think we should give him a fair chance. Let’s give him a practice session, and if he meets our standards, then very well. If not, then he won’t accompany us on the mission. Does that seem reasonable, Peter?"

"That’s all I’m asking!" I say excitedly.

Faith’s fortunate arrival helped me a great deal.

"Professor?" Storm asked doubtfully.

"...…." He remained quiet, looking at me again.

"Look, Chuck, I don’t like the kid anymore than glasses do and I most definitely don’t like that creepy old guy!" Logan started,

"But you have to admit…if he did help Faith…then we do kinda owe him one."

The professor looked at Faith and said, "Is this the same Peter that helped you, Faith?"

She let go of my embrace and quickly confirmed, "Yes professor! He’s the reason...the reason I’m free." She said with tears slowly forming.

Storm came quickly to her side and started rubbing her back, saying, "Hey, it's okay…you’re alright now."

"I’m just glad... that you’re okay!" I said to the now crying Faith.

"Me too! I thought I wouldn’t ever see you again. I thought I wouldn’t be able to thank you properly for everything you’ve done for me!" She started bawling.

Even my eyes started moistening.

This day was full of surprises.

"Faith...why don’t you go back to class for now. I have some things I want to discuss with Peter. Hank will take over for me for today’s class."

"Not before you promise me I’ll see him again. I have to! I have so many things I want to tell him!" She turned to look at me,

"I have so many things to tell you!" she repeated again.

I smiled and reassured her, "I'm not going anywhere. I promise this won’t be the last time you'll see me!"

"I'm so happy... that I get to see you again," she wiped her tears and smiled.

"Okay!" She slapped her cheeks and said, "No more crying, I’ll see you later, Peter. I know you’ll come visit me, won’t you?"

"You bet!"

She reluctantly left the room, still disbelieving that I was real. On her way out she kept looking back at me. I guess she thought I was an apparition of sorts.

The encounter put a stupid smile on my face.

‘At least she’s safe. I managed to save one person!’

I might have saved her physically, but I had to give credit where credit is due. Charles Xavier is the one who taught her how to smile again.

‘She’s changed so much in these past months. She’s a lot more expressive and outgoing now.’

All I could hope was that all those other women ended up in similar situations. I hoped that they would use the money I gave them wisely. I wanted to believe that, but my mind didn’t buy it for a second.

I hoped that they didn’t fall into a life of depravity.

Nobody said anything for a few seconds, then the professor finally broke the silence.

"I assume you have some kind of power?"

"I’m incredibly smart-" I started, but was interrupted by Wolverine's cackling.

I did not let him deter me and continued,

"I have super strength, super speed, I can crawl on surfaces, I heal fast, and I can tank hits. Not to mention I have other tricks up my sleeve as well."

I literally had my trusty web shooters under my sleeves.

"So I assume you could demonstrate these abilities."

"Absolutely!" I said with excitement. This was exactly what I wanted in the first place!

‘Finally, they’re beginning to take me seriously!’

The professor sighed, and had his hands crossed. He muttered something about regretting this.

"Moe…how good is he? Did you even bother to train him?"

"Nope," Moe said with glee.

Moe could have covered for me there; he wasn't helping matters. A few good words about me would have gone a long way here.

"So…you say you’re a good hand to hand fighter?" Prof. Xavier said,

"I defeated the blue shape shifting mutant, what was her name again?"

"You defeated Mystique? That’s pretty good!" Jean said in amazement.

I didn’t know why she was amazed by that, it was a walk in the park with my abilities.

My nonchalant attitude surprised everyone there,

'Wait, is she supposed to be really good at fighting?’

Everyone other than Moe was impressed.

Oh, right. I should have started with that. Damn, I could really be a knucklehead sometimes!

"I also fought with that flame dude-"

"John…you beat John Allerdyce in a fight?" Cyclops almost yelled.

"Yeah...he wasn’t all that much to be honest. The guy I struggled with the most was Magneto. Who, I injured by the way but like I said before I was unable to defeat him."

Everyone gasped.

‘Why is everyone so dramatic? It’s no surprise that I couldn’t beat an Omega level mutant.’

"Wait a minute…what do you mean "injure Magneto"? Forgive me if I’m being rude, but how did you manage to do that?" Jean Grey asked me.

‘Oh, of course they don’t think much about me, so their surprise makes sense.’

I told them all about my misdirection.

How, I threw the pebble at him and was almost successful in knocking him out. How he intercepted the pebble at the last moment. How me and Theo ran away, but in the end Magneto won because of the metal fillings. how he sent flying metal rods to kill me and how I avoided them all. Jean winced at the part where I described the pipes bending and started strangling me.

"...so yeah, the last thing I saw was lasers. Probably a hallucination or something." I ended my long winded explanation.

Scott Summers coughed at the mention of his powers.

Jean Grey looked horrified at my retelling of the events. She looked like she could vividly see the events play right in front of her eyes as I kept speaking.

Storm tightened her jaw and had an angry look on her face.

Wolverine was uncharacteristically silent. Prof. X folded his hands and looked deeply disturbed.

"So now you know why I want to rescue Theo. I was there, and I saw my friends die. Trust me when I say this. If I have to get hurt to bring these monsters to the light, to bring them to justice…then it’s a price that I’m willing to pay." I ended emphatically.

The room was dead silent at the end of my speech. Hopefully they felt compelled to give me a chance to prove myself.

"I…didn’t know that…you went through so much." Prof. X looked disheartened. Probably because he still believed that his friend Magneto was capable of changing.

"Yeah…probably should have started with that first!" I rub my head coyly.

"So, Professor, what do we do?" Storm asked,

Before he could respond, Wolverine spoke up.

"Kid, you said you can fight, right?"

I looked at the homeless looking man and said, "Yeah, I can fight."

He grinned and said, "Show me!"

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