11 Baxter and Decision

Author's Note

I've been having a hard time with all of my stories, but they're not dropped. I've just been looking for a good fanfic or show to get me back into the fandom as a whole, and I'm rewatching Young Justice right now and watching Invincible, so hopefully, that gets me back in my writing mode. Also, got rid of the idea that his Chimera form let him generate the energy as well. I want him to have to absorb the energy and have a limited store of it.

--------------------------------------------------------------The next morning I woke up and headed to breakfast. I decided to wait to go until everyone else would be there, so when I walked in everyone was already eating breakfast.

Muttered "Mornings" were heard as everyone was still talking about their experience in the other universe. I tuned them out and ate my breakfast as I resolved to go to the Baxter Building today.

Finishing my breakfast and standing up, I began to walk towards the door.

"Casper, where are you going?" Scott asked.

"Gonna go to the Baxter Building and get everything ironed out there," I said.

"Are you sure it's a good idea? The Professor didn't seem to like it all that much." Scott said.

"I'm sure, I'd rather have my own source of income. Now if that's all, I should be going." I said, walking out the door. Leaving the Institute's grounds, I found a secluded place and lifted off the ground with the power's I had absorbed from Wonder Woman.

Rapidly rising above the clouds, I began to fly towards New York City. As I flew, I enjoyed the freeing feeling I got from being in the sky. It took me half an hour of flying to reach New York City, but it was an enjoyable half an hour. Once I was getting close to New York City, I landed on the ground and walked in, catching a taxi to the Baxter Building. Entering, I walked to the front desk.

"Casper Castillo, here to see Reed Richards," I said.

"Head up to the top floor, he said you would be coming." the guy at the desk said.

Entering the elevator, the elevator attendant pushed the right floor for me and the elevator rapidly rose through the tall building, eventually coming to a stop on the top floor. Exiting the elevator, I walked into a lab where I could see Sue sitting at a table reading something, while Reed seemed to be working on some kind of device.

When I walked in, Sue looked up and said "Casper, glad that you could make it."

"Happy to be here," I said, noticing that Reed hadn't even become aware of my presence yet. Sue noticed where my eyes were and said "Don't mind him, he gets very sucked into his work."

"Makes sense, so what do I need to take care of today?" I asked. From there, Sue and I went through the paperwork I would need to fill out to be accepted for the position. It was a tedious process, so we spent a few hours just going over everything. Eventually, we finished and I got familiarized with everything in the lab.

'Looks like I'll be spending some time here.'

--------------------------------------------------------------3 months passed from that day as I began to work at the Baxter Building when I had time. Between working with my powers, working there, going to school, and training with the X-Men I had a really busy schedule.

I managed to get a good handle on the powers I had gotten from Wonder Woman, the enhanced strength putting me on an entirely different level than I was before. I made sure to keep working with the rest of my powers at the same time, too.

There was a change in the team dynamic since we had gotten back from the DC universe. When we had Danger Room sessions, the team was slowly looking at me at times for orders instead of Scott, which was getting on Scott's nerves. I could see how much it bugged him when anyone asked me if I had an idea on what to do, and I was just waiting for it all to come to a head.

For my part, I didn't really care that they were looking to me for orders. I didn't plan to stay with the X-Men forever, so expecting me to take up a leadership role was going to lead to them being disappointed, but I didn't mind helping out.

Working at the Baxter Building went well. Reed was in the process of stabilizing his Negative Zone portal when I started working for him, so I was able to contribute on that front. While I was working with him, I had to be careful. I didn't want Reed to get access to too much in case he became the Maker or another villainous version of himself, so I had to make sure I didn't help to the point that he was making a ton of progress.

I managed to save a lot of money from my time working at the Baxter Building, the pay being extremely good, and with their help, I was able to find a good house and buy it. Things were pretty much set up on that front, with the house in my name with the Baxter Building signing on as my guarantor. I visited the house when I had the opportunity and had installed some features of my own that I had developed. My major project was in the underground portion of the house, a spaceship for my eventual journey into space.

Currently, I was in yet another training exercise with the X-Men, going through a simulation.

"Jean, throw me" I called out as Jean nodded and focused her telekinesis on me, lifting my metal-coated form and throwing me through the air towards the robots, but while she was focused on lifting me, a stray laser hit almost her in the side, but she dodged around it.

Meanwhile, I flew through the last big robot and destroyed it, letting us clear the simulation.

Turning around, I found Cyclops standing in front of me.

"What was that? You almost got Jean injured" Cyclops said to me. He seemed to say it calmly, but I could tell there was a lot of emotion waiting to burst to the surface at the slightest trigger.

"It didn't even hit her. Do you think everyone is just going to stop when she wants to use her power? She was aware enough to keep her concentration and dodge an attack. Jean's a big girl Scott, maybe you should stop babysitting," I argued back.

"I'm not babysitting, I'm looking out for her safety as team leader. You shouldn't be giving orders in the first place."

At this point, the rest of the X-Men had walked over and were watching our conversation.

"You sure that's the only reason you're so worried Scott?" I asked him with an eyebrow raised.

"Yes, I am sure," Scott said with gritted teeth.

"Could've fooled me, oh great leader. You spend half your time trying to baby Jean every time we got through a sim. It's why half the time everyone listens to me instead of you." I told him, annoyed with his behavior in general. Scott had been looking for a chance to go off on me for a while now, he just finally found something he could start the conversation off with.

"What, you want to be the leader of this team?" Scott asked with a scoff.

"Not even a little bit. I don't have the time or desire to try to micromanage everyone in a battle. You seem to love micromanaging everyone though, so keep at it. Who knows, maybe if you micromanage Jean's life enough, you'll be the only option." I said, hitting an admittedly low blow. At first, I was just going to mess with him, but with Scott getting angrier and angrier, I saw an opportunity to leave the X-Men altogether. I just needed to push the right buttons.

Scott snarled as he reached his hand up to his visor and shot an optic beam at me. I saw it coming, and I could have reacted, but I let it hit me, throwing me back into the Danger Room wall and forming a dent.

"Scott!" Jean yelled at him.

"Calm down Jean, Scott just wants a little sparring match. He's dished it out, now let's see if he can take it." I said, getting up out of the hole in the wall and holding my hand out, forming a fist out of willpower energy.

"Oh shiii..." Scott began, but couldn't finish as the fist hit him directly in his chest, sending him flying back into the wall and straight through it into the hallway.

"Really Casper? A fist, that was the best you could come up with?" Laura asked me.

"What? It's a classic for a reason" I said with a smile.

"I'm not done yet Castillo," Scott said, coming back through the hole and shooting a more concentrated optic blast at me. This time I reached out and began to absorb the energy from the blast, storing more and more as Scott continued to try to amp up the blast.

"Stop it, both of you," Jean said, but both of us were ignoring her. The rest of the X-Men were watching as Xavier, Ororo, and Logan came into the room.

"Casper, Scott, stand down," Xavier ordered.

"He likes throwing those optic beams around, let's see if he can take them," I said, ignoring Xavier's order as I moved my other hand in front of me and began to channel the energy I had absorbed from his beam, shooting it back at Scott and hitting him directly in the chest. The beam tore through his suit and down to his skin, but I cut it off before it could do any serious damage.

Scott collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Feeling a sense of danger, I leaned back as a chunk of the floor flew past where my body had been previously.

"Really Jean, he started it," I said with indifference.

"You didn't need to go that far Casper," Jean said with an angry look on her face as she moved to check on Scott.

"All I did was give him back exactly what he shot at me. If I wasn't me I could've been seriously injured by his blast you know," I said, wanting to direct this conversation in a certain way.

"Casper, I've told you time and time again, you can't use your powers to attack others unwarranted," Xavier said sternly, projecting a mask of disappointment.

"Unwarranted? He attacked me first, all I did was say a couple of things. If he's that easily set off, what happens when the public finds out about us. Is he going to deal with the racism that's inevitable by shooting them as he shot me?" I asked.

"Regardless, we will come up with a suitable punishment for you. In the meantime, help Jean bring Scott to the infirmary," Xavier instructed.

"And are you including Scott in that punishment conversation?" I asked, seeing how I would need to play this. If he said yes, I would still leave but it wouldn't be as clean-cut. There was no way I was letting Xaiver 'punish' me.

"I believe that the injuries he has sustained are punishment enough," Xavier said.

"If that's your stance on the matter then you don't need to worry about punishing me, I'm leaving," I said, turning to walk out the door.

"Casper, be reasonable. Scott has been seriously injured in this scuffle while you are otherwise unharmed," Xavier said.

"Regardless, he started it. He should take it as a lesson to not try to fight someone he's outmatched by. It doesn't change the fact that I'm leaving, but I've got a question for you in the meantime. Why did you try to read Laura's mind when we got back from the other dimension?" I asked.

Xavier's brow furrowed while there were shocked looks from the younger X-Men. Ororo had a disappointed look on her face while Logan didn't look all that surprised, although he did seem angry.

"What makes you think I read her mind?" Xavier asked.

"I didn't say you read her mind, I said you tried. I made a device to prevent telepaths from accessing a person's mind and gave it to Laura, it tells me when someone attempts it."

Seeing Xavier's lack of response, I continued on my way out the door. I could hear the almost silent footsteps of Laura following behind me.

"You set that up," she said simply.

"Yes, I did. Scott gave me a good opportunity, so I took it. I'm ready to leave the X-Men. Are you sure you want to come with me?" I asked her.

"Yes, Logan will understand. Just let me grab my stuff," Laura said, moving to head to her room while I moved to mine. Quickly putting the few things I didn't already have in my storage cube into it, I turned to walk back out the door when I found Bobby waiting in the doorway.

"So this is it? You're leaving then," he said.

"Yeah, I'm tired of dealing with Xavier and Scott and I prefer to be more free anyone. Being this confined doesn't suit me," I told him.

"I'm guessing Laura is going with you then."

"Yeah, she is," I said, realizing our conversation was coming out stilted. My interactions with Bobby had grown more limited recently, not talking to each other all that much. I spent all of my time either at the Baxter Building or with Laura, which didn't leave much time to hang out with him.

"Just be safe alright," Bobby said, holding his fist out.

"Will do," I said, returning the fist bump as I walked past Bobby and out of my former room. Walking to Laura's room, I found her and Logan both waiting outside. Logan moved towards me, pushing me up against the wall as he unsheathed the outer two claws around my head while the middle one slowly raised until it was pointing at my throat.

"You better take care of her because if you don't, I'm coming after you. I'm good at what I do, and what I do isn't very nice," he said with a growl.

"I'll put her safety above my own," I said with a thumbs up.

"You better bub," Logan said, sheathing his claws.

Looking over at Laura, I said "Ready to go?"

At her nod, we both left Logan and walked outside. Xavier was waiting outside along with the rest of the X-Men. Walking past him, Laura and I continued as he said "Casper reconsider."

Removing two disks from my cube, I passed one to Laura.

"Wanna do something cool?" I asked her.

At her confused look, I pulled open the disk, throwing it down as a green hoverboard floated above the ground.

"Wicked" I heard Evan and Kurt say behind me as Laura copied my action, her own blue hoverboard floating next to mine.

"We'll be seeing you guys then. Everyone but Xaiver, a pleasure," I said as I hopped on the board confidently, having practiced with the board previously. Turning to Laura, expecting her to have some trouble I found her balancing perfectly on it without trouble.

"Stupid ninja girl," I muttered to myself in annoyance as a smirk appeared on Laura's face. Leaning forward, we took off, speeding through the air as we headed towards my house.