Chapter Twenty One: Conflict
William Brown sighed as Duncan drove past with a bunch of his friends when he went out to get his morning paper. The spoiled brat was drinking what might have been a beer while standing up in his brand new Chevy Firebird convertible. It was barely noon and he was already pulling stunts like that?!
Mr. Brown loved his younger sister dearly, but he had never understood her attraction to Jack Mathews. Some people thought that Dennis was actually Duncan's father when in fact he was actually his uncle on his father's side. William would have been happy if that was the case but… it wasn't. Holly had always used the term 'sophisticated' to describe her husband, Jack's father had been a long-serving state senator and political powerhouse in Albany.
Jack's ambitions had been a little less grand but with the help of the best tutors money could buy, Burke Mathews had gotten his boy over the bar at law school. Jack Mathews may have been a passing business lawyer but he was a darling on the social scene. With Holly as the picture-perfect bride and his son, Duncan the star athlete, the family picture was complete. Yet, Jack had little time for his 'family' outside of the social latter they provided, which is why Duncan was such a rampant kid at the moment.
William never claimed that there was a single 'right way' to be a father but to him, Duncan was a ship without a rudder and poor guidance on the helm. He only prayed when Duncan hit the rocks it wouldn't be beyond repair.
Well, he had somewhere to be and he was sure that his nephew wouldn't enjoy stalking around an old junkyard but William swore he'd seen an old Pontiac GTO that he could work on. He even had a suspicion on who he might get to help him clean it up...
SATURDAY XAVIER INSTITUTE 10:00 AM
The sun was slowly warming up the day the sky was clear with particularly fluffy clouds periodically dotting the horizon as far as the eye could see. The outside of the institute looked to be an ancient paradise as the gardens bloomed and the statues made the entire view pleasing to the eye. It could be seen that many students stayed at the school for the gifted as some sat on stone benches playing board games while others sat under shaded trees doing their homework. Inside the institute was similar scenes of adolescents watched television while some that had missed breakfast was making them a small meal to tide themselves over until lunch. Underground was a maze of meeting rooms, labs and a particularly larger room which has been labeled 'Danger Room' unofficially.
One team was inside the room doing the training while the other sat outside awaiting their turn. The schedule was written for both teams to not interfere with the other's training time but one of the two teams seemed to be taking longer than usual, much to the frustration of the red-headed team captain.
A deep frown marred her features as she stared hard at the 'Danger Room' door willing it to open but nothing changed as the sign on the side of the door still stated 'Training in session'. A gloved hand patted the redhead on the shoulder to calm her emotions since their little talk in the room the other day Rogue had seemed more friendly to her. She guessed that since her experience with Ben the other day where she took on his experiences were so similar to Rogue's active power they saw each other as confidants now. Jean had these experiences all her life not know if the thoughts in her head were her own, and it seemed like Rogue had been struggling with the same thing.
"Hey girly, this ain't nothing. Keep your calm they can't stay in there all day."
Her words were comforting… a little. The team had a lot of kinks that need to be worked out and they needed the training time to achieve that. But Scott was being a child and spending several hours training his own team, which wouldn't normally be an issue but when it interfered with her own team she had to take issue with that.
Her green eyes briefly glanced up at the blond-haired boy that had been on her mind for the past few days. She knew his hair was originally brown but he wanted to make a distinct difference between himself at another boy that shared his features. Ben was sticking to the wall as he glanced over a table with the information she knew nothing about, but his handsome features were concentrated and focused.
She had only ever seen the Professor or Beast show such concentration and she had never thought the two to be attractive in this state. But Ben was something else, he was passionate and tortured by something he couldn't possibly control. She didn't know the full story of how he came to be but she knew that when he left the only world he had ever known... Ben had suffered the most, and he was blameless in all of that happened, yet he took on all the responsibility. She had been wanting to approach him for the last few days but he seemed to never be around, he had even missed the last couple of training sessions. His absences were approved by Xavier but she also wasn't given the details of his whereabouts during that time. It had become a highly classified subject.
Suddenly the sound of the metal door opening caught everyone's attention, but it was a few moments before she could tear her eyes away from Ben's form. When she did she spotted Scott standing in the doorway of the Danger Room. He was in full combat uniform his hair was damp with sweat and he had a few spots on his uniform that had been burnt during practice. She had to admit Scott was a fine male specimen if she was looking at him with a critical eye. She could tell why Rogue had a thing for him, and to be honest, if it wasn't for his recent behavior she wouldn't have minded if they had ended in a relationship one day. Not that she was lining up her next boyfriend by any means of the imagination but… he was attractive.
She couldn't tell due to the visor Scott was using but he appeared to be glaring at her and Ben. That was too far! He had the nerve to spend an hour into their training time and still had the nerve to glare at them?! If it wasn't bad enough that he caused confusion between Ben and herself, he still wanted to be hostile to them!
"Scott! Do you understand that you have interfered with our training?" Jean said letting her frustration come out in her tone.
"My team just lost two skilled members, we need the time to compensate," Scott said not looking at her but his tone was strict.
"If you needed extra time you could have scheduled more time with Logan. Instead, we have been waiting here for over an hour for your team to finish."
"And…"
"Maybe you have forgotten but we are called the X-men, not the Scott-men, the world doesn't revolve around what you want. I will be reporting this to Professor-X." She said as she waved her team into the Danger Room.
A sneer on his face Scott replied as he walked off, "You do that…"
Scott didn't hate Jean, he could never but he really didn't know what was going through her head at the moment. There was something not right about the boy. Xavier had talked to him a few days ago and asked him to attempt to see things from Ben's perspective. He didn't like it, god knows he wanted to resist the very idea of the notion. But he figured he would give Ben another chance… Until he walked through the Danger room doors to find Jean making googly eyes at Ben. The boy hadn't stopped! He was just sitting there and Jean was still just falling all over him! Scott didn't want anything to do with him. Maybe if he just kept his distance he could calm down.
XAVIER INSTITUTE LOCKER ROOM
Ben was feeling a little sore from the hour-long practice, they had to end it short because of the Gold team taking up too much time. Which was fine with him, since he was abducted by shield the other day he had been thinking about their proposal. They wanted him to take point as a temporary agent to track down Warren. He had been spotted recently working with the known mutant Magneto and then there was the stolen equipment that helped make a super-soldier. But to do this job he had to basically give up the place he has found here. And although he hasn't felt as welcome as he had the first day he was here it still felt better than being on his own.
-BEEP-BEEP-
A notification on his phone displayed a text from Mr. Brown. "Hey Ben, I have a project I want to work on… Need a little help. Do you have some time?"
Smiling down at the screen he typed a quick reply. "Yes, When you coming?"
It wasn't long before he received another notification "On my way now. Bring clothes you don't mind getting dirty, and the misses is cooking a large dinner so be prepared to be rolled out tonight!"
Ben Smiled. At least he had one constant smiling face in his life. He finished getting dressed and headed out to grab work clothes from his dorm room but almost stopped in his tracks when he spotted the redhead standing at his room door. He has tried to not think of her the past few days, it was obvious she didn't like him. So why was she being persistent?