I stare vindictively at Gwen as the two of us make our way to school in the morning. George was once again busy with work, leaving us to go by ourselves, and I of course took the opportunity to put her on blast for leaving me to lift the furniture that she put on my couch by myself. I wasn't a superhuman like her (yet) and I get she was excited to make her costume, but I would have appreciated the help in moving it back.
After berating her for a while, she looked away awkwardly, looks like I've done enough for now. I am actually curious on what the costume she made looks like, but that will be for later, after school. The same goes for the web slingers, which I managed to start and finish yesterday.
After Gwen ran off, and I cleaned up from the power testing, I of course jumped right back into the dungeon where I cleared up the last of the 4th floor and entered the 5th which Gali promised to reward me for completing. I only exited late in the evening as I remembered what I wanted to make, only to run across the city to buy all the materials I needed.
I figured getting my hands on all the chemicals I need would be more difficult, but there were plenty of chemical stores throughout New York and all the ones I needed were fully legal, so I could just buy them with no checks or documents needed. In the end, after a few hours of shopping followed by several hours at my desk tinkering, I managed to make two pristine web shooters and plenty of web fluid to go together with it.
Naturally I played with it a bit but only in my apartment and didn't go out with them. I doubt I have the strength needed to swing around with them. The webbing was incredibly durable, and I couldn't even cut it with my Twin-Spear, but that probably had more to do with my stats rather than shortcomings of the weapon. The webbing only went away by itself as it dissolved a few hours later.
"Hey I sent you all the homework answers for the coming week… that should be enough of an apology right… ehe" Gwen said, still not looking at me. It was very useful to be fair since I didn't leave myself enough time to do any homework with my dungeon and crafting duties.
"I guess I'll let you off the hook this time." I say, and she turns back to me with a smile as if nothing ever happened. Guess it was a minor thing in perspective.
We end up making it to school just a few minutes before the bell rings. The hallway is still packed with half awake students who are fumbling their way through the Monday morning and trying to get to class.
I've passed by these lockers hundreds of times now but never really bothered to pay attention to who they belong, it never mattered. Today, though, I caught sight of two people standing by their lockers which were just two over from Gwen's and subsequently mine which was right next to Gwen's.
The first in line was a green-eyed woman with red hair tied in a ponytail. Not someone I would look at twice usually, especially before I got my new memories, but the person next to her made it clear who she was.
(image)
Standing next to her was a man with red sunglasses. Fiddling with his locker with a stern expression on his face as if waiting for someone to break the school regulations so he could scold them was the man I have already met once, Scott. And the girl, was of course Jean Grey.
The two X-Men were talking among each other casually in a low voice, which I couldn't hear from here. Gwen didn't seem to notice or care about them as for her, they were just another 2 random students not mutant superheroes, but I kept the two in my vision at all times. For a second, Jean's gaze flicked up and landed on us, but she quickly returned to her conversation.
I lightly elbow Gwen, stepping closer to the lockers, and she does the same.
She leans in towards me, her voice lowered to a whisper. "I got my costume… kind of. Maybe after classes are done, we can go do a test run? I want to see how fast I can run across rooftops and if I can jump from one to another."
"You know we are surrounded by other people, right?" I replied to her without turning my head, grabbing the books I need for the first class. "This isn't exactly the ideal place for this conversation."
"I'm whispering."
In the middle of a school full of super powered individuals… "Still not the best place for it. Also, you are vibrating like a phone on silent mode. Anyone with eyes can see there is something to be excited about."
"I can't help it." She says, her tone bubbling. "Do you know how hard it is to hold yourself back from using your powers once you have them? I climbed up the wall and onto the roof this morning just for fun."
I throw a side-glance at her, also taking the opportunity to look at the two mutants at the same time who are, thankfully, still conversing without paying attention to us. "Did anyone see you on said rooftop?"
She paused, suddenly unsure. "No? I don't think so."
"Very reassuring."
"I was wearing my mask…"
"And probably crawled out of your own window."
"Ehe." She laughed silently, "Guilty."
Before I could fire back with another whispered argument, the red-headed Jean suddenly cut in with a mischievous grin.
"So, how long have you two been dating?"
The sudden question felt like a brick thrown at your face. Not to me, I didn't really care, at least they didn't think it was anything more than a date. I would rather have that than them questioning the costume and rooftop climbing stuff. Gwen though had an entirely red face.
"Wha-? We weren't- I mean, we aren't-." She stumbled through the sentence but looked like a deer caught in headlights as her mind blanked. She couldn't exactly make an excuse by explaining what we were actually talking about, so she just kinda short-circuited.
Eventually, her brain must have decided hiding was the best course of action, though, as she grabbed her locker door and opened it. With violent speed and force.
The entire locker door came off its hinges with a screech, leaving Gwen standing there with the door in her hand as the two mutants and tons of other people in the hallway looked over with confusion in complete silence.
Scott's eyebrows furrowed while Jean's expression remained unchanged, but her eyes turned to the locker door before refocusing on Gwen, then at me. Uh oh.
"Sorry… I was just trying to joke around. Didn't expect that to happen." Jean says after a few seconds, not really sounding sure herself on what she witnessed.
Alright, time to attempt to save this. "Well, would you look at that. That rusty old door finally fell off. I kept telling you, you should have reported that and got it replaced earlier."
Nailed it.
"Huh?" Gwen recovers from her stun lock and frantically nods at my words. "Oh yeah! I mean, yeah, of course. I should have reported this earlier, and now it's broken… oops."
"Really?" Scott folds his arms, looking at us suspiciously.
"Yeah, of course." I say, giving my own locker door a little shake for effect. "Mine creaks the same way when I open it, should probably get it checked out too before it breaks like Gwen's… haha…"
Jean, however, was still looking at Gwen, almost like staring right through her. I even see as her eyes unfocus entirely for just a second.
Finally, though, she blinked and smiled as if nothing happened, "Anyway, sorry about that. I just thought that we have had our lockers right next to each other for so long without ever talking and wanted to start up a conversation. Didn't exactly go according to how I imagined it."
She turns to Scott, "We should get to class."
"Yeah." Scott said. As he turned around, to follow Jean who was walking off, his gaze lingered on the two of us for a few seconds longer before shaking his head and leaving.
I look on for a bit longer and as they walk away they share a look that I didn't fully like.
Fuck me.
Once they were out of earshot and everyone else continue on with their day, done staring, Gwen let out a low sigh and leaned her forehead against her now doorless locker.
"I'm an idiot."
"A little bit, yeah." I agree with her. It's good to be honest in these situations, you know. "Next time, maybe try not to hulk out like that."
"I panicked." She said in a whispering yell, "Also, what does 'hulk out' mean?"
"Nothing, don't worry about that." Forgot that term doesn't exist in this world yet. "You can put your things in my locker for now, plenty of room there. I'm gonna go by the bathroom first before coming to class."
"Okay…" She says and moves her stuff over before heading toward the classroom, still a little downtrodden. It's fine, though, the prospect of getting to try out her powers later will cheer her up naturally over the rest of the day.
I meanwhile make my way over to the boys' bathroom, which was, thankfully for me, entirely empty.
"Gali." I call out. "I'm gonna guess she tried to read my mind? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say she wouldn't be able to see anything about the system or dungeons like that, right?"
[Correct, you don't have to worry about that.] Gali said, floating around me in the air. [Even if she got the whole power of the Phoenix Force to try and penetrate your mind, she would see nothing but fog. No one is getting into your mind.]
That's kind of comforting, but at the same time invites a whole other problem. "If she couldn't see into my head at all, then she probably thinks I have some sort of powers to block her out as well. I'm almost 100% sure she looked into Gwen's, but I would have thought that I'm still safe, since I haven't done anything to suggest I might have powers around her."
[Want me to contact the Phoenix Force and have it tell Jean to forget about everything she saw today? Wait… now that I think about it, her connection to The Phoenix was pretty weak, almost like she has some sort of block on her, so that might not work.]
I exhale, "Yeah, probably from Xavier. Honestly, by now she has told Scott all of it anyway, so I don't think it would help even if there wasn't a seal on her."
[So what do we do?] Gali stops her air swimming and stops in front of me, also a little worried now.
"Nothing." I say simply.
[Nothing?]
"Yep. Not much we can do in this situation, so might as well just not worry about it." It is a simple solution. No reason to get a headache worrying about something I can't change right now. In all honestly, this is another thing that I don't think will affect me negatively, if anything it just gives me an in with the X-Men for later if I need it.
Just roll with the punches and go on with my day.
***
Author Note: Like 3 chapters more until the end of what I would consider the first arc.