"So she reached across the table and sipped YOUR coffee?" A small Kitty asked from the phone Anna had propped up against her resting backpack on the dining room table.
"Yeah." Anna twisted her pencil between her thumb and forefinger. "Then she told me a frappuccino wasn't real coffee."
"It's got coffee in it!"
"That's what I said!"
"Fine," Kitty took the pencil out from behind her ear and rested her chin on her fist. The room behind her was dark, and only a desk lamp illuminated her face. "Bad takes aside, what else happened?"
"Nothing really."
"Nothing? Last time you guys saw each other, you were fighting with sticks in a hospital being actively raided by the Brotherhood, and next time you see each other, you're just chatting about coffee and the weather or something?"
Anna rubbed the back of her neck and tried to fight back the yawn she felt gathering in her throat. "Yeah, I guess so."
Kitty leaned close enough to the camera that Anna could only see her forehead. "Are they cute?"
"Excuse me?"
"Are you being evasive because this Gambit person is kinda hot?"
"No, Kitty. They're just some weirdo I met at Starbucks." Anna rubbed at the spots where she felt her neck grow hot. "Speaking of, you find a place to satisfy your caffeine fix over there?"
"Beyond my dad's Mr. Coffee drip coffee maker, not really. I haven't even gotten to leave the house since the holidays. My parents put together a curriculum for me to follow till they can come up with a more 'long-term' solution for my education."
"Oh," Anna found herself rubbing that same spot on her neck till she forced herself to bring it down to the table.
"So… how's it been going?"
"Ann, that's, like, the third time you've asked me that. Like I said, nothing's been going on. It was nice to see my folks, but since I got here from the airport, they haven't let me out of their sight. When I ask them why, they say stuff like, 'We just haven't seen you in so long!' and 'We just want to spend as much time with you as we can.'" Kitty pushed the eraser end of a pencil into her desk and leaned enough weight on it that it bent in the middle. "But I know what the real reason is."
"The FOH?"
"The what?"
"The Friends of Humanity?"
"Oh, those? Yeah, I heard about them on the news. Some yahoos talking about human-centric rights, right? We don't really have those over here, just see highlights on YouTube or on TV when my parents have breakfast in the morning."
"So no one from their group has approached you?"
"No… why, have they talked to you?"
Anna could suddenly feel the weight and shape of the FOH dagger in her hand and see the dented tip in her mind's eye. Its place in her closet burned a hole in her forehead. "No," She hesitated, "but there have been plenty of them at school."
"That's scary… what have they been doing?"
The brawl in front of the flagpole expanded the burning hole in Anna's head. Visions of fists flying and the sound of screaming were only cut off by the blast of Principal Darkholme's starter pistol. "Mostly handing out flyers."
"Well, at least it hasn't been anything crazy."
A vibration on Anna's wrist sent a spear through her chest. In bold letters, the face screamed at her, 'MISSION'.
"What the hell?"
"What's wrong?"
"Kitty, I need to go. We've got a mission."
"You do?"
Anna ended the call and ran upstairs to change. Along the way, she heard things being dropped to the floor behind closed doors and cursing. By the time she'd changed and was out of her bedroom door, her fellow X-Men were already headed down the stairs with half-zipped up uniforms.
"Where's Jean?" Anna asked the others once they got to the elevator.
"Probably already down there," Scott tapped his watch. "Jean, where are you at?"
Following a brief elevator ride, the doors split to reveal the basement hanger and a small army of Danger Room drones prepping the jet. In the middle of it all was Jean, scrolling through a tablet.
"We're up as soon as the final checks are complete," Jean stated without looking up at the others. "The Blackbird's bay door is open. Go ahead and get inside, and Scott, you should go ahead and prime the engine."
Kurt paused on his way to the jet, "Where are Logan and Ororo?"
"Lagging behind," Jean said, her nose still buried in the tablet. "Now, hurry! We don't have much time!"
Anna was corralled by the crowd of her fellow X-Men into the jet. She found her seat, secured her seat belt across her chest, and just as she had become halfway accustomed to her surroundings, Jean came rushing up the center aisle to join Scott at the helm.
"Opening the hangar doors." Jean tapped a couple of blinking buttons, and the massive doors ahead split just wide enough for daylight to peak through. "When you're ready, Scott."
Scott's hand gripped the throttle, but he hesitated. "Jean, where are Logan and Ororo?"
"I don't know, Scott, but we can't wait around for them forever. We have a mission!"
"And… what is the mission exactly?"
"What is this about, Scott? We need to go now! Lives are in danger!"
"Jean, I want to make sure we're not putting our lives in danger for no reason!"
Jean curled both her fists in her lap and sucked in a breath. "Two mutant boys are being attacked by a group of HOA, and no one is going to help them if we don't."
"How do you know about this?"
"Do you want to keep talking about how I know about a hate crime happening, or do you want to stop wasting time and do something about it, Scott?"
Scott looked back into the jet, and his ruby visor blinked in the low light. No one spoke or even moved.
"Alright," he said after a moment, "Alright, let's do this." He renewed his grip on the throttle and started to push it forward. A loud THUD shook the entire aircraft and caused Scott to pull back on his acceleration. A breath later, Logan's face appeared upside down in the windscreen of the jet.
"License and registration, kid!" He shouted through the thick glass.
"What on earth, the moon and stars above got into you children's mind!" Ororo threw her hands in the air as she passed each of Anna's fellow students in turn, who'd assembled shoulder to shoulder in a line in the library. "Hijacking the blackbird? Starting a mission without consulting either of your guardians? Do you children understand what's at stake here?"
"Auntie -"
"Not now, Evan!" Ororo shouted. "Do you think this is some sort of game? We're talking about your well-being. Your lives! This is not a time to play around or to pretend to be heroes!"
"If we're not heroes," Evan stepped forward, "then what are we? We're supposed to be the X-Men!"
"You're kids." Logan looked on at the group from the threshold to the library with thick hair-covered arms crossed. Anna wasn't sure if he'd blinked once since bringing them up there. "Conflict is not a thing anyone should be sprinting toward, especially young people your age. Trust me, I've seen plenty of people, good people, destroy their lives that way."
"We're a part of this war whether we want to be or not!" Anna took Evan's side. "Wasn't it you who said something like that, Logan, to the professor? We didn't ask to be a part of this, but we are, and we might as well -"
"Might as well what, young lady?" Ororo loomed over Anna. "Go out there and risk revealing your identity again? Once they know who you are, it will be over, and there will be little Logan and I can do to protect you."
"So we just exist in a bubble then?" Evan looked between the adults. "We get to be protected while there are others like us out there that just get screwed over?"
Ororo redirected her beaming eyes toward her nephew, "They aren't getting 'screwed over', Evan. It's what the professor has left to work on as we speak."
"And what about in the meantime? What about those kids we were going to save?"
"They aren't your concern."
"Shouldn't they be if we're the only ones who can save them?"
"And who said you were? The police -"
"Don't care, Auntie! Why would they?"
"Evan!" Logan took Ororo's side, "Don't speak to your Aunt that way."
"In what way? I'm just telling her the truth!"
Compared to the others, Scott's voice was small and wrung out like a dirty rag. "Don't we have some obligation to help others like us?" He leaned against the back of one of the chairs. "We have the training, we have the resources… we can help."
"What you CAN do," Logan pointed a finger in his direction, "is shut your trap, all of you, get the wax out of your ears and listen. You are not the ones who make these sorts of decisions, it's us."
Ororo placed a hand on the man's shoulder. "Your hearts are in the right place. They are in a beautiful place that comes from love and concern. However, you must understand that things simply aren't as cut and dry as they may seem."
Evan stepped forward and got as close to his Aunt as the outer rim of a personal bubble would allow, "And why's that?"
Logan stepped between them, "Because the cops don't know who to point the guns at, kid!" A crisp snap of cold air punched through the chests of everyone in the room. "All of us rush this scene, like you were planning to, who do you think the authorities are going to go after, ESPECIALLY after the attack on the Atlas facility? You think they will try to arrest the HOA members or shoot the mutants running around with super powers?"
Logan pushed a finger into Evan's chest, "Stop thinking with this," and he then pointed at his head, "and start thinking with THIS. It will keep you alive longer. Because this is where we are at right now, kid. We're trying to stay alive."
"We stay alive while letting others like us get hurt?"
The fire in Logan's eyes burned brighter as they stared into Evan's. "Yeah, I guess so, kid. I guess so. Any more questions?"
Evan clenched his jaw tight enough a vein was visible in his forehead. He brushed past Logan, being sure to shoulder-check him on his way out the door. Anna saw the the pupal's in Logan's eyes get smaller and was confident steam was about to roll out of his ears and nose.
Ororo straightened up and held her hands behind her back, "You all are dismissed and will return to your rooms immediately. There will be no missions, and the Danger Room trainings will only continue to be held to hone your skills. However, as of now, the X-Men are officially, and from here on out, disbanded."