Since the Young Avengers split up, Tommy didn’t really know what to do with his life. He didn’t really have a family outside them. They had saved his ass from Juvie and all those shitty experiments they did on him, all the ways they fucked up his body and his mind.
Not that he would change anything, not about how he got there at least. Not with all the horrible things he had found out. Things the school tried to cover up, things that he knew he had to prevent from coming to fruition.
He thought about joining the X-Men—he had always looked up to them as a kid (he even owned some of the action figures and comic books) and even later in life, though he’d never admit that to anyone, especially not Billy—but he had no real reason to, didn’t know anybody, had nothing keeping him there. Besides, what reason would they have to accept some Jersey kid who blew up a school?
Especially if they found out who’s son he was.
The thing was, M-Day wasn’t Wanda’s fault, he knew that. She wasn’t herself . But a lot of mutants didn’t realize that, and those who did were angry enough that they didn’t care.
Anger that was, he would admit, warranted, but upsetting to see nonetheless.
The thing was, it was one thing to know, in theory, that he was Wanda’s son. It was another to fully admit it to himself. If he admitted it, accepted it, he suddenly had that much more to lose. And he didn’t know if he could deal with that. He had already lost his team, being the only one that wanted them to stay together. He couldn’t lose his family, too.
But the team was split up now, and there was nothing he could do about it, no matter how much he hated it. He had to get on with his life.
He stayed with Billy’s parents for a while, studying for his GED, but he couldn’t stand it for long. They were just too nice .
So he left. He travelled the world, seeing things he’d only dreamed of seeing as a child. Sure, he’d been to a couple places when he was with the Young Avengers, he liked going on long runs, but he hadn’t realized how preoccupied he’s been with the team until now. It was almost relaxing to have time for himself.
Almost. He still missed the team though.
After about four months, he finally finished up, took his GED’s and did pretty decent on them. He’d only survived those four months by taking odd jobs here and there, and relying on Kate’s oh-so-generous donations. (Technically they were made anonymously, but he knew it was her. Who else with that much money would care enough to help him?)
Still, he had felt bad for accepting them, and now that he had legally graduated high school he’d be more able to get a job.
So he settled down for a little while. Got a job at a superhero help agency assembling tech for them. Got an apartment, got settled into a nice routine. He’d go to work for a couple hours, then get home and study for the SAT for about another hour, then head out for the night, making sure to keep an eye out for anyone who needed help. He’d have tea with Wanda every Sunday.
He even got a nose piercing.
But everything changed when he met David.
“Hey, you look ten year less boring than everyone else,” he said to a coworker of his one day, who looked about his age, with kind eyes and a bright smile, “Let’s grab some noodles,” Tommy propositioned him.
“Yeah, sure. I’m David.”
“Tommy.”
After Tommy finished knocking out the last of his work for the day, they left to go eat together.
They talked about all manner of things. Tommy found out that David worked with the helpline, and that he was formerly a mutant, with the power to absorb knowledge from people, sort of like a form of telepathy. He’d been with the X-Men, on the New Mutants team. He had a loving family and a sister named Kim, and kept in contact with all his friends in the X-Men. He also learned that he was exceptionally smart, as well as a witty dork.
They grabbed coffee together the next day, and Tommy had several questions on his mind.
“You’re a genius multiplied by an enormous number! What the hell are you working a crappy job like this for!”
Tommy knew his reasons, he was a mutant that blew up a school. He couldn’t exactly afford to be picky about jobs. With David, though, surely someone like him could get any job he wanted.
His answer wasn’t what he expected to hear.
“I was kinda part of the type of Mutant Separatist Organization that tends to be described as ‘terrorist’. I was kinda head of their youth division. With a resumé like that, there’s not many open doors.”
Tommy continued on that line of questioning for a while, until he got answers enough to satisfy his curiosity.
They finished their coffee, heading into work, only to see police officers everywhere, investigating asking their coworkers all manner of questions.
They approached their boss, and he explained, “there was a break-in last night, all the components were stolen.” They checked the security cameras to see if they could find anything, only to see what looked like… Eli .
“I gotta make a call,” Tommy said, leaving the building.
Unfortunately, he found out, it couldn’t possibly be Eli. His mom told Tommy he’d been sick the past two weeks, stuck in bed. So that ruled out that option.
After asking if they could stake the place out, they headed down to the warehouse to check everything out. They saw the person almost immediately, hopped down from the loft, ready to pick a fight.
The person, or whatever it was, turned to look at Tommy, and all he could feel was this excruciating pain in his head. He tried to get up, to turn, to run, but he wasn’t fast enough and this thing touched him and suddenly he didn’t know where he was anymore.
He was trapped in this interdimensional hell for fuck knows how long. It could have been seconds or it could have been years. He had no concept of time, or being, or anything. He felt like he was in some sort of Limbo, cut off from everyone and everything, from existence itself, and he didn’t know what to do, how to escape. Maybe I’ll be trapped here forever , he thought.
The next thing he knew, he found himself kissing David. It wasn’t exactly unpleasant, he almost enjoyed it, and if that wasn’t terrifying he didn’t know what was. He decided not to dwell on it, pushed David away, and took in his surroundings. It looked to be New Years’ Eve, with only a few minutes to midnight. He looked around, headed into a building overflowing with superpowered teens, and found Kate Bishop in the flesh, danced with her, had the time of his life. He was happy to be back, he was happy to see all his friends again.
Of course, he learned, that the team had planned on splitting up again, Tommy not even getting a chance to have joined with them again. He was upset he missed out, that what he’d been waiting for all these years had happened and he hadn’t been able to be there to experience it. It was… frustrating.
He refused to let this keep him from remaining friends with them, this time. He put effort into maintaining all his friendships with them, trying to build a life again, David letting him move in, in a small two bedroom apartment, getting a new job, starting college classes.
It wasn’t until a year later that he realized two things.
One. Tommy was bisexual.
Two. He was hopelessly and desperately in love with David. And that terrified him.
So he ran. He ran away from his perfect life, a life he’d worked so hard to build and maintain. He ran away from his job, his classes, his responsibilities. He ran away from his friends, and his brother, and the man that meant more to him than words could express. The man he loved so much it scared him.
He ran and ran and ran, trying to outrun his feelings, knowing it was impossible.
He knew this wasn’t a good coping mechanism. He used to do it constantly, trying to literally outrun his problems, and he thought he knew better now. Thought he was past this.
He guessed he wasn’t.
He knew his friends were worried about him, his phone filled with texts from them, asking where he is, if he’s alright, if he needs to talk. He ignores them in favor of the path ahead of him.
It’s around middle-of-nowhere, Canada, when he hears the fighting.
Even with how quickly he processes information, it takes a second, and he has to race back, having overshot just a bit.
He sees a girl with black hair standing against maybe twenty guys. She’s covered in blood, with what looks like two daggers in her hands.
No, not daggers.
Claws .
“Now, now, there’s no need to be upset,” the guy at the front of the pack says. He wears a lab coat and holds a clipboard, and behind him to either side are two men in all black, holding guns. Behind them is a large decrepit building.
The clawed girl isn’t having it though. “You took EVERYTHING from me! My happiness, my life, my mother ! And you want me to come quietly?” She asks, enraged. “Fuck. You.”
“Now, X—,”
“Don’t you dare .”
“Please make this easy on us. Come with us, X-twen-.”
“MY NAME IS LAURA KINNEY,” she says as she claws the man’s throat out.
All the men train their guns on her.
“Hey!” Tommy shouts, rushing to appear beside the girl, Laura, who he’s 90% sure is Wolverine.
“Why don’t you all fuck off and leave her alone?”
“Don’t get involved, son,” one says.
“No, fuck you. Consider me involved,” he sneers.
“You don't understand,” says another, “she stole something from us.”
That pisses Tommy off. “No, you don’t understand,” he says with a snarl, “I know your type. You don’t think of us Muties as people. To you we’re just weapons. Weapons for you to use and abuse as you see fit.” He shakes his head. “I don’t care what she stole, if you're anything like—” he falters, “all people like you are good for is dying.”
Before they can fire their guns, Tommy rushes past them and steals all their ammo, tossing their guns several feet away from them as he does so. He rushes back to Laura’s side before anyone notices he was ever gone.
That’s when the real fight begins. As he’s pounding them all with his fists and kicking them as hard as he can, faster than they can process what’s going on, Laura is stabbing and slicing them with her claws.
Tommy starts feeling weirdly lethargic after a while. Maybe he had forgotten to eat today, he thinks to himself.
So he decides to try to find the squad leader. By that time, a lot of them are starting to recover their guns, so he decides it would be a good idea to get some leverage. He grabs the leader from behind and before she can process what’s going on, he has his hands on either side of her head.
“Don’t shoot or I’ll blow her head off her shoulders!” He’s bluffing, he doesn’t have the power to be able to pull that off right now, and besides, this is Laura’s fight, she gets to decide who dies.
They all train their guns on him, looking at the squad leader, waiting for her orders.
“Shoot to k—”
“LAURA!” Suddenly, there’s a voice coming from the building, and he sees a girl who looks a lot like Laura, only smaller and with scars all over her face, running out of it, carrying a girl a little older than her, with silver-ish gray-ish hair, also addled with scars. “I’ve got Astrid! We have to go! RUN!”
Behind them, he sees a good fifty guards, chasing after her.
Laura makes quick work of the guard she’s fighting, and starts running in the same direction as mini-Laura.
Tommy gets the message, drops the squad leader, and starts running in that direction too, doing his best to keep the guards off of the three, but realizes that he’s losing strength. He takes off in the same direction they left in, catching up with them, and, asks them which direction they need to head in.
“We have an X-Jet about half a mile that way,” pointing northwest of where they’re currently running, “But I don’t know that we’ll make it in time,” says Laura.
“Sure we will,” he says, picking her up, along with mini-Laura and the girl she’s holding, then runs in that direction until he sees the X-Jet they mentioned. He isn’t as fast as usual, for some reason, but he still manages to outrun the guards looking for them by far.
He sets the girls down and Laura starts working on opening the door.
“Who’s this?” the girl asks.
“No idea,” Laura answers.
“Tommy. You can call me Speed,” he says, feeling dizzy.
“Whoa! Speed, like from the Young Avengers?” asks the girl.
He’s kind of surprised someone recognizes him, but pleasantly so. “Yeah!”
“Cool! You guys are so cool. Laura told me about New Years, when you—”
“Gabby, we have to go. Now .”
“Right. Tommy? You coming?”
He takes one step forward and collapses into the snow.
When he wakes up, they’re somewhere over New York.
“He’s awake!”
“Good,” Laura says. “You alright?”
“I… what happened?”
“Looked like you’d been shot a couple times. I took out the bullets that were still in there. Running around like that can’t have helped any but it looks like you’ve got a halfway decent healing factor so you healed up relatively quickly,” she says. “Careful, though, I don’t know how quickly you heal.”
Tommy moans in an irritable tone. “I’ll be fine I guess, but fuck !”
He thinks back to the fight. He had focused on trying to take down one opponent at a time, so he must’ve gotten careless with one who managed to find a gun. That explains the first bullet. The other two are probably from when he was trying to distract the guards from Laura and mini-Lau—Gabby. He was already weak, which made him slower than usual, so it would make sense.
“So… are you gonna tell me where we’re going?” Tommy asks.
“Well, I’m and X-Man, and so is Gabby. We’re in an X-Jet, and we’re currently flying over New York. I think you can figure out the rest,” Laura replies.
“Right. So Jean Grey School then?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool.”
As they got closer to the mansion, he hears Kitty’s voice over Laura’s earpiece, although he can’t make out what she’s saying.
“...”
“Plus two, actually.”
“...”
“No other clone, just some kid from the Young Avengers. Don’t know what he was doing there though.”
“...”
“Yeah.”
“...”
“Okay, will do.”
She flies the X-Jet into a hangar, only to be greeted by a blonde girl in all black. Tommy listens to them from his seat in the plane.
“How was the mission,” she asks in a Russian accent.
“It was fine. Picked up an extra person though,” Laura answers.
The Russian girl laughs. “Yes, so Kitty told me. Do you know why he was there?”
“No clue. He just kinda… appeared. I think he’s a speedster.”
He decides to go ahead and start making his way out of the plane. He’s still in pain from the bullet wounds, but he can walk. He holds one hand against his stomach, the other bracing against the side of the jet. He listens to them as they continue their conversation.
“Interesting. Do you need anyone to the Med-Bay?”
“Yeah, Astrid, and the Young Avengers kid. He got shot a couple times.”
“I’m fine!” he shoots back, perhaps a little too quickly.
Laura and the blonde turn to look at him as he’s exiting the plane.
“Tommy, you can barely walk.”
“ I’m fine ,” he says again.
Laura seems to understand, and she nods. “Just Astrid, then.”
“Alright.” Yana brushes past him, boarding the plane to grab Astrid. She carries her off and creates a teleport disk, and before she leaves on it, she turns and says to Laura, “by the way, Shatterstar wants to ‘hang out’ again with us this weekend. I’m down if you are.” and turns to step on the disk, which will presumably take her to the infirmary.
Tommy leaves the hangar in search of a bench he can lay down on. He is only barely standing, he needs to rest for a good hour or two before he’s able to feel better.
He manages to find one outside Kitty’s office and lays down for a few minutes, before she sees him and asks to see him inside, seemingly unaware of his wounds.
“Hey, so I know you’re a mutant, and I know you’re with the Young Avengers, but would you mind telling me a bit more about yourself?” she asks him when they’re inside.
“Uh, yeah so I’m Tommy, I’m 18, I’m Wanda’s son, I’m a speedster, And I’m fr-”
“Sorry, you’re one of Wanda’s sons?”
“Yeah. Used to have tea with her every Sunday.”
Kitty rubs the bridges of her nose. “Alright. I’ve been meaning to ask--you were there when she restored Rictor’s powers, right?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I was wondering if she was able to do that with a few other mutants? We still have some that are depowered, and while a lot have gotten their powers back, there’s still several who remain depowered.”
“Sorry, I think it was only a one time thing. I don’t think she can do it again. Believe me, if she could, I would’ve already asked her to restore Dav--”
He pauses, frowning. David. His best friend who he hasn’t spoken to in at least a month or two. His best friend who he is in love with and who he desperately misses. It’s still a sore spot for him.
“David? As in Prodigy?” she asks. Tommy nods.
“So you’re friends, then?”
“Yeah, we worked in the same place, then he was with the Young Avengers for a while,” Tommy tells her.
“Really? When was that?”
He opens his mouth to speak, but closes it again. Kitty wouldn’t remember the mother incident, would she? She’s an adult, after all. From what David had told him, most adults won’t be able to really understand what had happened, so it’s best not to bring it up.
“About a year ago. They just went on a few extra-dimensional adventures for a while, and he was with them when all that happened. Nothing major.” It’s not technically a lie.
She nods.
“I suppose we’ll have to find another way to restore everyone’s powers,” she says. A pause. “How did you find Laura?”
“Mostly just by chance. I was out for a run and I happened to hear her fighting. Thought I’d help.”
“Out for a run… in Canada?”
He laughs. “We covered that I’m a speedster right? I do laps around America in my spare time.”
“Fair enough.” A pause. “ Look, I know you’ll probably say no, but since you’re a mutant, and you probably saved Laura and Gabby’s lives, I feel obligated to ask: do you need a place to stay? I’m sure we have a few rooms available here at the school if you need somewhere to rest your head.”
“Sure.”
“That’s about what I expec-sorry, what?”
“Yeah. If you don’t mind, I mean. I kinda fucked up and I don’t have a place to stay right now. I’d love to stay here.”
“Alright. Do you want your own room or are you fine with sharing?”
“I can share.”
“Alright. I’ll pair you off and let you know where your room is in a bit.”
“Thanks.”
He spends the next couple hours napping, then gets up to explore the mansion for a little while. He’s almost finished when Kitty approaches him through the wall and says, “hey, I’ve been trying to find you for like an hour. You’re with Nori. Down the hall and to the right. Second door on the left.”
“Cool. Thanks.”
She nods, then disappears through the wall again.
He finishes exploring, then checks out his room. There’s someone in it already, a girl with blue hair and large metal gauntlets.
“Hey, are you Nori?” he asks.
“Yeah,” she says. “You the new kid?”
“Tommy, yeah.”
She nods. “Kitty told me about you. You’re friends with David right?”
“Yeah,” he says. Why does he have to be reminded of his fuck up constantly? “Yeah, we lived together for a good year. Why, did you guys know each other?”
She raises an eyebrow. Hang on. Blue hair and gauntlets. Oh!
“You’re Surge, aren’t you?” he asks.
She smiles. “Yeah! We were on the New Mutants together. We were dating for a while.”
“Yeah, so I’ve heard,” Tommy answers. “Cool to meet you.”
“You too!”
He crashes on the bed and instantly falls asleep.
The next day he mostly spends adjusting to his surroundings, talking to some of the other X-Men. He finds out the blonde girl from the previous day is Illyana Rasputin, aka Magik. He also meets Rachel Grey, Bobby Drake, Remy LeBeau, and several of the other major X-Men. He talks to some of the kids around his age, like Trevor, Benji, Martha, Victor, and Megan, among others. There’s another new kid that he spoke to for a few minutes, too, Billie. Tall redhead with glowing veins. Near the end of the day he catches back up with Laura, and they chat for a while about all sorts of things. As they’re about to leave, Laura propositions him, “hey, me, Gabby, and some friends are going out in a couple days, I wanted to know if you were interested in coming too?”
He shrugs “Yeah, sure.”
“Cool. Gabby might bring a friend too.”
“Cool.”
The days pass quickly, and the weekend hits before he even knows it.
The day of, Laura has to practically drag his ass out of bed.
“Laura, why do we have to leave so early?”
“It’s 12pm!”
Tommy groans.
After ten minutes of negotiating, Tommy finally gets out of bed, speedily gets dressed, and rushes out the door.
Thirty minutes later, and Laura, Tommy, Shatterstar, Gabby, and Illyana are getting ready to leave.
“Can you drive?” Yana asks him as soon as she sees him.
“I-no, I don’t really need to. Speedster remember?”
Illyana sighs. “Laura, when you said you were bringing a friend, I thought you meant one who could drive.”
“Can we not just teleport?” Laura responds.
“I don’t really feel like teleporting six people across the city all day.”
“Also Molly hates teleporting.” Gabby interjects.
“Also that,” Illyana says.
“So where are we planning on going?” Tommy asks.
Shatterstar lights up. “Julio and I’s anniversary is approaching. I wanted to get him something nice.”
Gabby leans over to Tommy and practically whisper-shouts “he means a ring!”
Tommy raises his eyebrows. “Wow. Congrats.”
“So if you’re not driving, and I’m not ‘porting, how are we getting there?”
In the end, they decide to take a bus. Illyana and Star sit together, as do Laura and Gabby. Tommy is left to sit by himself. As usual.
That doesn’t last long, however, because a few minutes later, the bus stops and he sees a familiar face board.
“Holy shit . Molly? Molly Hernandez-Hayes?”
“Tommy? Holy crap, it’s been like, years!”
They hug for a minute, then Gabby’s shoving Laura out of her spot.
“Molly, Molly sit here!” she says, excitedly.
Molly sits down and the two start enthusiastically talking to each other. Laura takes a seat by Tommy.
“So… about the other day. I’m gonna be honest, I’m not sure whether to be mad or grateful,” Laura admits.
“I get that. I mean, it sounded pretty personal and I don’t like to intrude on that type shit. But you were also gonna die, so.”
She nods. “Yeah.”
A pause.
“Hey, so Kitty’s giving me free reign to make an X-Team. I needed some people for it and you seem to be cool and have a solid powerset, if you’re sticking around, I was wondering if you might wanna join?” she asks him.
“Sure, I guess. Who’s in so far?”
She pauses to think for a bit. “Well, so far me. ‘Raya’s on, too. Uh, that’s Dust. I think the other new kid said they’d think about joining but I’m not sure. I still need a few more people but I’m hoping to get about 7 or 8 of us?”
Tommy misses the prospect of being on a team. It’s been about a year and a half since he had last been with the Young Avengers, he realizes. That feels like too long.
“Cool. Let me know when, y’know, the team’s ready to go,” he tells Laura.
It takes a while before they get to their stop. The six of them all clamber off, one by one, and start walking along the strip area.
“So, where to first?” Laura asks.
They all start talking at once.
“One at a time!” Yana yells.
In the end, they all come back satisfied. ‘Star got Ric’s ring, Gabby found some sparkly new rainboots, Molly found a cute dress and a cool new video game, Yana snagged a new sword and a nice shirt, Tommy got some neat pins and buttons for his denim jacket, even Laura, who had only planned on window shopping, came back with a stuffed bear.
“What? You’re never too old to have a stuffed animal,” she says to Tommy as they board the bus back to the school.
“I didn’t say anything!”
After such a long day, thinking back to how much Shatterstar clearly loves Rictor, and how Illyana talks about Kitty, the easy smile Laura gets when she talks about Sooraya. It makes him think back to David, who he hasn’t spoken to in months. He wishes he had the courage to talk to him, to see him again, but even if he did do that, David probably hates him now. He ran away the second he realized his feelings for David weren’t what he thought they were. Just like he runs away from all of his problems. This time it’s just more literal than it usually is.
He whips out his phone and flips to a picture of him and David goofing off on David’s 19th. He smiles. That was a good day.
Tommy falls into a sort of routine at the X-Mansion, training some, trying to pick back up from where his classes left off, meeting new people and making friends. He becomes close with Nori and Laura, talking to them often.
He even gets a new tattoo.
It’s after about two weeks there that Kitty recommends therapy.
“We have someone on campus, Paige Guthrie, formerly with Gen X, who does therapy. If you’re interested, that might be something to look into. I know a lot of the other X-Men and X-Kids have… been through quite a bit and thought it’d be a good idea to extend the offer to you.”
“Cool. Thanks.”
He’s… hesitant. He doesn’t really like the idea of telling other people about his problems, but he also knows it isn’t healthy to keep them bottled up.
After a lot of arguing with himself, he finally decides to give it a try.
Unfortunately, when the appointment rolls around, he ends up bailing. The prospect of talking to someone he doesn’t know about all his problems is terrifying to him, and he doesn’t know how to deal with it.
He runs out to the courtyard, runs out of the premises of the school and into Central Park and sits down on a bench.
“Never seen someone run that fast. What’s eating you?”
He looks up and sees the girl he’d rescued a few weeks back. Astrid.
He had seen her around, a couple times, while he’d been at the school, and they’d talked occasionally, but he isn’t sure whether to consider them quite friends yet.
He realizes she’s still waiting for an answer, and shakes his head. “I’m a speedster, it’s my job to run fast.”
She rolls her eyes. “I dunno. You seemed pretty singleminded in getting away from the school. But, if you don’t wanna talk about it, you don’t wanna talk about it.”
They sit in silence.
“ I just—I don’t know what to do! Everything is falling apart faster than I can stop it. And when it finally feels like my life is starting to get better, when I finally start feeling like I might be able to move on and put it past me, I run away again. It’s like a neverending cycle and I don’t know how to fix it! I don’t want to keep running away anymore.”
She nods.
“Is there anything… in particular that’s bothering you?”
David, he wants to say, I miss David. I miss talking to him and laughing at his jokes and watching shitty movies with him and hearing how his day was and-- “Oh, just… I, uh, I bailed on the therapist, even though I promised myself that I wouldn’t.”
She gives him a look like she thinks there’s something more to it, but doesn’t press him.
“You could always tell her you’re sorry and reschedule. I’ve only talked to Paige once, but she’s very kind. Knows what she’s doing. Besides, this probably isn’t even the first time someone’s bailed on an appointment.”
“I… I don’t know if I can do that.”
“You don’t have to talk to her in person, just text her.”
He pauses, then says quietly, “what would I even say?”
“Just say, ‘hey, sorry I didn’t make my appointment on time today, something came up. Can we reschedule?’”
He types out what she said, takes a deep breath, and shoots off the text before he has a chance to talk himself out of it. She doesn’t answer immediately, and he doesn’t know if that makes him more or less nervous.
He gets up to head back to his room in the mansion, but before he leaves, he asks Astrid, “how’d you get so good at advice anyways?”
“Hmm? Oh, uh, when we, me and my sisters, were, y’know… growing up, I was one of the oldest, so a lot of them turned to me. In the face of… all of the shit we dealt with, I had to learn to be soft for the others.”
He nods, then heads back up to his room.
By the time he’s back, he sees that he has a notification on his phone.
Paige (7:52pm)
That’s alright, Tommy! We can reschedule whenever you’d like! I have a slot open tomorrow, or if you want something farther out, we can schedule it for next week!
He thinks on it for a minute. He wants to put it off as long as possible, wants to run away from his problems, but he knows this is something he has to work on. He also knows if he does it tomorrow he can get it over with quicker, and he won’t have to worry about it anymore.
Tommy (8:07pm)
tomorrows fine
The next day, he’s on edge, anxious about the appointment. I’m sure she’ll understand if I just wanna take baby steps, ease into talking about my problems, he reassures himself, right?
He paces around his room all day, nervous, fiddling with some of his stim toys.
“Keep doing that, you’re gonna wear through the floor,” Noriko says jokingly, standing in the doorway. “You alright?”
“Yeah! Fine!” he answers.
Nori gives him a disbelieving look, like she wants to say something more, but decides not to, instead flopping down on the bed and sighing.
“If you say so. I’m gonna take a nap.”
Before he realizes it, the time for the appointment rolls around and he’s headed to Paige’s office, worried as hell.
He sits down with her as she introduces herself, “Good to meet you Tommy, I’m Paige Guthrie.”
He nods. “Yeah.”
“How are you today?”
“Fine,” he answers by default.
They talk for about an hour, mostly getting to know each other, Tommy losing some of his built up stress. Some, but not all.
Before he leaves, Paige tells him that she has something she wants him to work on.
“Alright, Tommy, before we meet again, I wanna know what you wanna get out of this, from getting therapy. If you could make a list, that’d be great.”
It gives him something to do at least.
After he leaves, he heads to the cafeteria to grab a bite to eat. He runs into Laura and Nori there, talking.
He hears them talking about Laura’s team.
“You’re sure you don’t wanna join?”
Nori sighs, “I appreciate it but no thanks. I’m a little busy right now, and I don’t know if I’d really be able to handle it right now.”
Laura nods. “Yeah, I can totally understand that. It’s cool, I’ll try to find someone else who can join.”
Laura looks up to see Tommy. “Oh, hey Tommy!” she says, lighting up, “come sit with us!”
He does.
“So, about the team,” Laura says. “We have most everyone ready to go, and Kitty has a mission lined up for us. It’s me, you, Sooraya, and the new kid, Billie, like i said, and Trevor and Lin have also joined,” Laura informed him. “The only problem is that, uh, we were supposed to be a team of seven and, uh, we’re missing someone. Everyone else is either already on a team or doesn’t want to join up, so we’re kinda stuck.”
He nods. “What’s the mission?”
“Bunch of people squatting in a cave in the mountains in Tennessee. They claim to be mutants, and they’ve been visiting towns in the surrounding area via teleportation, interrogating them about someone. We’re supposed to check it out, then report back in.”
He nods.
“Tommy, we need to pull this off quickly, but we very much need that extra team member. If you know someone who could be able to help…” she trails off.
A pause. He does know someone who might be able to help, someone who’s very skilled in investigating, but… of course there was a but.
“Tommy, do you know someone?”
“I… might, but we haven’t exactly spoken in months. I… don’t even know if he’d want to speak to me.”
Laura nods. “I get that, but Kitty stressed that this is very important. I think she knows more than she lets on but… still not enough to go on. I hate to ask you to do this, since you don’t seem overly enthusiastic about it, but please, Tommy.”
He hesitates.
“...Alright.”
He paces around in his room, trying to work up the courage to text David, typing up texts only to delete them. He plays with his fidget spinner a bit more, then sets it down and listens to music for a bit.
Nori doesn’t seem to be bothered by it, being a fellow speedster she understands having pent-up restless energy. She’s sitting at their shared desk, scrolling through different websites on her laptop, when she pauses to say “I get that you’re anxious about… something, but whatever it is you’ll get through this, alright? Just take a deep breath.”
He nods and does as she says. It helps a little, but he’s still stressed.
He stays up late that night, trying to convince himself to send David a text. Everything he tells himself, he finds a rebuttal for. He finally decides to give up and lay down.
It takes him a while, but he’s finally able to start drifting off, starts feeling his mind calm itself down when it hits him like a sack of bricks.
I don’t want to keep running away anymore.
In an instant he’s no longer drifting off, fully awake and sitting bolt upright in bed. He grabs his phone from his nightstand, and types out a simple message.
hey
He stares at his phone screen, and before he can talk himself out of it, sends the text, turns off notifications, shuts off his phone, and goes to sleep.
He wakes up to six text messages from David:
David (12:35am)
tommy?
are you alright?
where have you been?
wait youre not texting me because youre dying are you?
please say youre not texting me because youre dying
seriously are you okay?
He stares at the messages. He doesn’t hate me.
Tommy (11:44am)
dw dw im not dying!!!
i miss u!!!
and uuuh hate 2 ask u this but uuuh i might need a favor
David (11:49am)
of course! whats up
Tommy (11:50am)
so uh. im at the xmen mansion and i maybe joined a team with laura wolverine and we may perhaps be short by one person and i hate 2 ask u this but could u maybe. help us out?? just this once i promise
David (11:53am)
ill be right there
David gets there about an hour later, meeting Tommy on the lawn.
“Sorry, there was traffic,” he says by way of explanation. “But you wanted me to join a team again? Tommy, I love you but I’m not sure about this.”
Ignoring the way his heart speeds up as David says he loves him, he responds with “I know, I’m sorry, it’s just for one mission. I think it’s supposed to be a quick recon mission, then we can head back and find someone else if you want.”
David sighs. “What’s the mission.”
They all get ready to leave, heading to Tennessee via the X-Jet.
“Okay, so you’ve all been briefed on the mission, right?” Laura asks.
They all nod.
“Okay, good. Uh, maybe we should go over each other’s powers, just so we all know what we’re working with. I’ll go first, even though most of you probably know what I can do, I’m Laura, A.K.A. Wolverine and I have two metal claws on each of my hand, one on each foot, and a healing factor.”
“I am Sooraya, also known as Dust, and I can turn my body into dust.”
“Tommy, or Speed, I’m a speedster.”
“I’m Trevor, A.K.A. Eye-Boy and I, well uh, I have eyes all over my body, as you can see.”
“As you can see ,” Tommy repeats, and they share a laugh.
“I’m Lin, A.K.A. Nature Girl, and I can talk to plants and animals. And they talk to me.”
“I’m Billie, you can call me Ruin, and I do blood magic and illusions.”
“My name’s David, or Prodigy, and I… well, I used to be able to absorb the knowledge of people around me, but I lost my powers during M-Day. I kept all the knowledge I gained though.”
“Cool, alright, so we know what each other’s deals are, do we have a plan of attack?” Tommy asks.
“Fuck yeah we do,” answers Laura.
They land in the nearby town, which looks to have just been hit by the cave-dwelling mutants, and ask around a bit.
After a bit of questioning, they learn that a girl in her 20’s had seemingly been kidnapped for who-knows-what reasons. Tommy has the feeling this isn’t gonna be “just a recon mission” for long.Not that he minds overly much, he’s always down for a bit of action.
But he had promised David.
In the end, the team has to make the hike up the mountain pass to the cave, trying to find the correct entrance.
If not for Lin, it probably would’ve taken much longer to find, but she occasionally stopped to ask a tree or a bird or a small rodent if they had seen anyone, and where they might be able to find them. In the end, it takes about thirty minutes.
They find the entrance hidden away amid the shrubbery, and make sure to slip in as quietly as possible, with Trevor keeping watch to make sure they aren’t caught.
They walk until they hear voices.
They see shadows of five people standing around in a large chamber.
“...not who we’re looking for, I’m telling ‘ya,” a first voice says.
“Maybe she’s not, but she might be able to tell us where they went,” chimes in a second.
A third speaks up, “Aleric, I don’t think she knows anything. We could just let her go?”
A fourth agrees, “yeah, she’s obviously scared out of her wits, anyways. We should just let her go.”
“No can do,” responds the first, Aleric, “she already knows too much. There’s no way we can let her live.”
They hear a muffled screech, followed by a slapping sound.
“Shut up.”
“Look, I don’t care what we do with her, but you said we need to find this person right? Then what are we standing around for?” says the second voice.
The fourth person mutters, “if they’re even here,” to which the Aleric responds, “oh they’ll be here, Emily, my chronometer said--” he pauses. “They’re here.”
They all turn to look at each other, Billie sitting stock still, Laura getting ready to unsheathe her claws, Trevor anxiously watching the corner they were hiding behind to see if someone approached from it.
They hear footsteps, then a man twenty-something man appears and says “ah, I see you’ve found my… friend. I’d like it if you’d return them, please.”
Billie continues to stay still as the rest of them ready for a fight.
“No?” Aleric says, “Very well.” He pulls out a large, futuristic-looking laser weapon, maybe some sort of crossbow? and he prepares to fire at them, but suddenly the scene changes, and they’re all in some futuristic hellscape, and Billie’s standing in the middle of them, holding a dagger in their hand. They run at Aleric, slashing at him with their knife, as he expertly dodges their attacks, with them dodges his laser blasts. It’s like a dance, like they’ve done this before, Billie slashing at Aleric’s chest, then sweeping their legs under his feet as he jumps, firing a shot at their head as they dodge out of the way, swiping at his bicep as he tries to kick them, on and on. They even manage to get a couple hits on each other. Eventually, though, he gets too close to them, and he headbutts them, and suddenly they’re in the cave in Missouri again.
“Neat party trick, Bills, but it doesn’t work on me. You know that.”
They pant, glaring fiercely at this guy, and it looks like they’re about to go for round two, when someone comes running out from the room Aleric and his accomplices were hiding in.
“Gabriel, you dumbass, I told you to wait until--”
“The girl? She escaped. I can’t find Yasmine anywhere, I think xe helped her escape.”
Aleric sighs. “Whatever. I’ll have to deal with the two of them later. In the meantime, we have guests,” he gestures at their team.
The second guy, Gabriel, smiles, and suddenly it seems like the rush of water from a nearby stream picks up and sounds as if it's getting closer and closer.
Tommy runs at the guy, trying to stop him, but it’s like he freezes up. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Aleric straining slightly.
Of course, I have to end up going against the one guy who can stop me in my tracks, Tommy thinks to himself.
Behind him, he can hear his friends rushing to fight, the rush of approaching water, the metallic sounds of Laura’s claws, the sounds of punches making impact, the gusts of wind that Sooraya causes when she moves in her dust form.
He hears a punch make impact. He can move again.
He tackles the water guy to the ground.
Gabriel shoves him off, gets up quickly.
Tommy’s quicker though.
He lands three punches and a solid kick to the solar plexus. The guy’s bent over, trying to catch his breath.
Tommy rushes over to Aleric. He roundhouse kicks him in the back of the head, then rushes to his front as Aleric manages to somehow hold the rest of the team off.
It’s starting to look grim, like they can’t win, when Tommy notices something. It looks like something embedded in Aleric’s neck.
Wonder what that is , Tommy thinks as he rips it out.
“You son of a bitch!” Aleric shouts, holding his hand to the spot in his neck where the device was.
Aleric starts coming after him.
He tries to freeze him in place. Sooraya sees what he’s doing. She flies into his face and blocks his view. She moves only last minute so Tommy can sock him right in the face, hard.
He hits him with a flurry of punches. The rest of the team helps.
Laura slices at him with her claws. Sooraya flies at him from all directions. Billie calls on their blood magic, skin glowing, eyes red. Trevor throws a few punches, Lin throws kicks where she gets an opening.
It doesn’t actually take as long as they’d expect before he’s down. Whatever the device Tommy nicked off him was, it must’ve been the thing keeping him up, letting him take all those hits without dropping.
“So… is that it? Do we just go?” Tommy asks.
David answers, “We still don’t know why they were here.”
“For me,” Billie responds.
“Why were they trying to find you though,” Trevor asks.
“We shouldn’t stick around,” Sooraya says, “he could wake up at any time.”
Billie walks over to Aleric, uses their dagger to poke around him, and apparently find what their looking for. They pull out a small device and place it in Aleric’s hand, using their knife to press the small button on it.
As soon as they do that, Aleric disappears.
“Well how are we supposed to find out why he was here now ?” Tommy asks.
“I told you. He was here for me,” Billie states. “We have… history.”
They return to the town to see the hostage they were trying to free. She’s been reunited with her family, getting settled back in.
“If he ever comes back, if he ever gives any of you trouble again,” Billie says solemnly, “call up the X-Men. Ask for Ruin. I’ll kick his ass to back to Batire and make sure he never comes back.”
They help comfort the family, and the town, trying to reassure them all. They all seem pretty shaken up, but very grateful, which is a far cry from the treatment they’re used to receiving. Eventually, though, they have to head back to the school.
They get back and debrief with Kitty, and afterwards most of them retire for the night, but Tommy has other plans. He runs a few laps around America—both North and South—thinking about the day’s events, about how him and the rest of the X-Men worked as a team, wondering what they thought of him, being grateful they could save someone even if just one person, wondering about what that man could’ve possibly had to do with Billie, before headed back to the mansion (but not before impulse-buying the most ridiculous pair of Crocs he could find.)
He gets back a bit later, making a beeline for the kitchen. He’d heard somewhere that technically you weren’t supposed to eat before bed, but he had never been one to listen to shit like that, and time is objective anyways, so really, who cares if he wants to have a bowl of his favorite cereal at 1am at night.
When he gets there, however, he sees Astrid is already there. He’s honestly not sure whether he wants to make conversation or not, or even if he’s supposed to in situations like this, but Astrid speaks first.
“So Laura says you had a cool mission today?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool. Uh-what happened, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Well, turns out the people who were being kidnapped were taken by some bastard one of my teammates knows. We kicked their collective asses. Then their leader disappeared.
She nodded. “Huh. Interesting.”
Eventually they go on to recount his past experiences with the Young Avengers, all of the fun times he had with his teammates, all his adventures. Astrid seemed particularly intrigued by these.
“If you want to come on missions with us, you can. I mean, you’d probably have to train a little first but-”
“No, i-it’s fine. I like hearing about missions, but I’m not really sure the whole superheroing thing is for me, y’know? I kind of just wanna live my own life. Sure, I’ll fight for what I believe in tooth and nail. But I don’t wanna be risking my life every day.”
He nods. “Makes sense.”
A pause.
“Well, uh, I guess I gotta get to bed. But see you around,” Tommy says, putting his bowl in the sink.
“Ok, cool. Night,” she responds.
Over the next few weeks, the team see each other around a lot, talking with each other all the time. They become close, going on a few missions here and there, growing as a team, getting to know each other better and becoming better friends. They don’t always have time to all meet up all together, but they’ve at least managed to align their lunch schedules so they can sit and talk with each other each day.
“Look,” Tommy says, “all I’m saying is we should have some sort of team name or something, y’know?”
“Okay, you have any ideas then?” David asks.
Tommy pauses for a second, then says, “I’m still working on it, but come on! It’d be great to finally have something to call ourselves.”
“Oh, what about NeXt Gen?” says Trevor.
“I think that one’s taken,” Lin says. Trevor makes a face.
“Avengers Hate Club?” suggests Laura.
They all burst out into giggles.
There’s a beat of silence, then David says “how about something like Revolutionary-X?”
They all discuss amongst themselves for a minute, trying to decide what they think of the name, when they hear Rachel in their minds.
“Guys, new mission! There are rumors of someone who knows how to reverse M-Day. It’s probably a hoax, but worth looking into. Meet Dani in the X-Jet in 10.”
“Well,” Billie says, “I guess that’s our cue.”
Sooraya whispers, “David, do you think…” she trails off.
“I don’t wanna get my hopes up, but if there’s even the chance they’re telling the truth, it’s worth looking into, right?”
They all make their way to the X-Jet, and see Dani already getting it ready to fly.
“Oh, good, you’re all here. So, I assume Rachel told you guys the basics?”
There’s an assortment of affirmations as they all board and get ready for takeoff, and Dani continues.
“Basically, someone out in Washington says they have some sort of miracle reversal for M-Day, that can give mutants their powers back. We don’t have many details, but Cerebro has been picking up more mutants in the area than usual, so we’re gonna check it out. Before we leave, any questions?”
“Have there been any actual reports of mutants who claim to have gotten their powers back through this person?”
She thinks. “One or two, I think. If I remember correctly, their names are Riley Teller and Violet Brown. Anything else?”
Silence.
She fires up the X-Jet, setting the coordinates to where they’re headed, then says, “alright then, let’s go!”