Canon Fodder

“That it?” I asked as we flew over the neighborhood by the school. Gwen on my back she nodded while holding onto me. I dropped down to the building. It was rather nondescript. More of an office building than a lab I pushed that thought away. I’d seen weirder. 5 stories tall the exterior was brick, the flat roof had puddles of water on it from the rain earlier, and the street around it was busy. 

 

I continued to drop, flying across the walls as I sent my Observation Haki out. There were a lot of empty cubicles, office furniture scattered everywhere I did find that there was lab equipment in the basement. Sensing some people downstairs I hoped it was the right place as I shot back up. 

“So do I have super powers now?” Gwen asked.

“Probably,” I said. “It might take a few days for them to kick in.”

“That was the thing that bit Peter, right?” I nodded. “Will we have the same powers?”

“Again, no idea,” I said. “Sorry for uh…bringing you so much pain lately.”

She hesitated then tightened her arms around me. “Thanks for saving me too,” she whispered, kissing my cheek. I smiled, turning to her. 

“What was that? I missed it,” I said.

“Thanks,” she said, rolling her eyes. 

“No the kiss. Didn’t hit my lips,” I said, puckering them up.

Gwen laughed but shook her head. She used an arm to slap me, I turned in the air making her scream and latch back on. “You did that on purpose,” she yelled. 

 

“You were going to hit me,” I said.

“I wasn’t,” she lied. We quieted as I came up to her school. 

“You sure you’ll be okay at school?” I asked. 

“Yeah. I’m feeling better. You already messed up my perfect attendance enough as it is,” she said.

“Oh no, that isn’t good,” I said. “It might be on your permanent record.”

“It will be. They let the person that has perfect attendance give a speech at graduation too,” she said.

“Who would you lose against? I’ll just beat them up and make them miss tomorrow,” I said. 

“You would,” she said, chuckling. “Put me over there.” I flew down to the dumpsters and she got off slowly. “Thanks again.” Moving her hair behind her ear she blushed while looking away. 

“Anytime,” I said, pulling a Gantz suit out of my storage. “You still my partner for the company?” 

“I don’t know. I got super powers now. May not need that,” she said. 

“Oh, gonna start a life of crime? That’s about the only way to make money with your powers,” I said. She frowned but shook her head, taking the suit. As she grabbed it she hesitated but moved closer and moved to kiss my cheek again. I turned my head, intercepting her with my lips.

She drew back, blushing as she tried to apologize. “No take backs,” I said with a smile and lifted off again. Flying back to the loft apartment I fought the urge to just check the lab by myself. I had promised to do a fly by then head right back, but I was used to working on my own. Grumbling to myself I was in a bad mood when I got back. My spider gone, this whole thing felt like one big waste, but I hoped to get my answers soon enough. 

 

“Think that lab was the place?” Hisako asked, a beaming smile on her face as she turned to me.

“Felt a few people there. Might be the right place,” I said. 

 

“So exciting. My first raid,” Hisako said. 

“They get old,” I mumbled. 

“I’m going to beat you up,” she mumbled back, squinting her eyes. I barked a laugh. I was in a better mood with her excited attitude. “Logan and Scott said we will leave tonight.”

“What? I thought we were leaving now,” I said.

“They said they want to review with Xavier before proceeding,” she said. “And don’t want to be seen doing whatever we are doing.”

“Dammit. What if it’s the wrong place?” I asked. “We only have 2 days.”

“You only have 2 days,” she said. “We still have to watch the Hellfire Club.”

“Oh right, anything new with them?”

“No idea, been stuck here watching your girls,” she said.

“Oh, jealous?” I asked. 

“Annoyed is a better term,” she said. “Where were you all night?”

“I broke down?”

“And yet you showered before coming back?” She asked, squinting her eyes at me. 

“Fell into a puddle.”

“More like fell into some girl that likes to dress up like a dominatrix,” Hisako said. 

“You’re not wrong,” I said, unable to help but picture her in it. 

“Oh my god, you actually had sex with her?” Hisako said, aghast. 

 

“Quiet it down,” I hissed. The other’s perked up and were obviously listening since they didn’t turn the pages of the books they were pretending to read. “What’s it to you?”

“She was so old,” Hisako said.

“Like 25,” I said. I couldn’t remember how long lawyers had to go to school, but I guessed it was a lot. “What’s it to yah? Thought you weren’t interested.”

“I was interested in our buddy cop story,” she said, pouting. “Who knew you were such a manwhore.”

“You have no idea, trust me,” I said. Marking her off the list I doubted she was up for my harem if she was complaining about 1 girl. “Guess we are stuck as friends.”

“You’re friendzoning me? No, I friendzoned you,” she said, acting angry I could tell she was enjoying the exchange. 

 

“Too bad. I already did it. Friends with benefits though,” I said.

“I don’t know, I heard you and Anna were a thing,” she said.

“Yeah, kind of broke up before this whole thing,” I admitted. 

 

“What? Oh my god, I have to text Alison,” Hisako said.

“Spare me your high school drama. Who the hell cares about this crap?” I asked, annoyed that suddenly I was a person of interest at the school. 

 

“Everyone. You’re like a celebrity now that the whole school knows about the X-Men. Half the kids think you broke into the base and they made you a member to shut you up. The other half think Xavier threw you in prison for breaking into some bunker with lasers guarding it.”

“What the hell,” I said, feeling a headache coming. “Please Hisako, please don’t add fuel to the fire. The last thing I want is for people at the school bugging me. I still haven’t moved out of the dorm.”

“Ha, good luck with that,” she said. “My phone has been blowing up all week about the underclassmen asking about this or that. I already started about 20 rumors. Pretty sure they think I run the whole thing.”

“Good for you,” I said, shaking my head. “Well I’m going to make myself busy then. You seen Betsy?”

 

“Yeah, downstairs,” Hisako said. She was busy typing into her phone. 

 

Grabbing it I text quickly -I’ve decided to change my hero codename to Gundam-

 

“Hey,” she said as I gave the phone back. “Shit, that’s good. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“You’re welcome,” I said as I got on the elevator. She could create an armored exoskeleton, I was surprised she hadn’t. As the elevator moved down I realized she probably told everyone I was planning to go by Bastard. I had to think of a new name quickly. I was being too much of a stickler. 

 

“These people didn’t know anything about DC heroes, I should just pick one from there,” I mumbled walking toward where I felt Betsy. “Superman, hell no. Batman, not wearing the costume. Joker? No. The Comedian?” I liked to laugh, and I could pull off a yellow smiley face pin. “Hmm, Spectre? Shazam? Damn these names suck. I should just use my name. Weston…Walker. Walker? I fly everywhere now…I kind of like it. They’d never suspect me to fly then. Hmmm, Walker Nexus Danger. Fuck that is good.” I was liking it already. “Alright, I’m Walker.”

“What?” Betsy asked as I came to the living room of the other X-Men rooms. 

 

“Nothing,” I said. “Did you want to learn Nen?” 

“Yes,” she said, perking up. “I thought you forgot.” 

“Nope, been busy as you may have noticed,” I said.

“Yes, you seem to be rather…in the thick of it,” she said. She talked a little funny, I wondered if she was foreign or something. My ability translated words, did it translate accents too? Betsy talked very prim and proper. 

“Where are you from?” I asked. 

 

“London,” she said as if she was scared it was the wrong answer. 

 

I shook my head. Years doing this and I hadn’t noticed that the skill translated accents as well. Which was probably a good thing. Back in the day when I watched British shows I had to use subtitles since I could hardly understand them. 

 

She jumped as if goosed and quickly took off her shirt. “Do I need to remove my bra as well?” She asked, pointing to the thin lace bra. I was caught off guard for a moment. Staring at her chest I couldn’t help but want to know if her tan skin extended to the rest of her breasts, or if there was a tan line. From what I could see she was all tan. Did she sunbathe in the nude?

“What?” I asked. 

“You said we have to take shirts off for this. Do I need to take off my bra?” Betsy asked with wide eyes. 

 

“Uhhhh, no,” I said reluctantly. “Just turn around. Now remember Nen…” I walked her through the whole thing again. Repeating myself multiple times it was some time before her Haki felt confident enough to try. I forced Nen into her and she panicked. I slowly talked her down and it took about 30 minutes for her to condense it on her body. Another 5 minutes later and she had drawn it fully back in. 

 

“This was very tiring,” she admitted. 

“I bet,” I said. “Nerve racking to know you could die if you don’t get it right.” 

“But amazing,” she said. “I’ve heard it takes decades to learn something like this. But most all are scams.”

“Yeah, who has that kind of time,” I said. “Now what you didn’t hear last night is you will need to train it. Start moving your lifeforce to this or that area. Mainly your eyes and hands. When you have more control I’ll want you to channel it into glasses of water.”

“Water? Why?” 

“It is very useful, trust me. Water is the source of life. It reacts in special ways when you push lifeforce into it. Elektra will be doing the same, I assure you,” I said.

“On that,” she said, tired but wanting to ask more. “You um, were very insistent on me joining you. Can I ask why?”

“You’re one of us,” I said. “Not sure how the ninjas got their hands on a mutant, but I thought it would be best to help you learn what it meant. My friends and I are experts on it.”

“Yes but…back at the auction. You called me something. Can I ask what it was?”

I thought back. I might have blurted her codename when I saw her use her mutant power, just because I remembered that over her name. “Psylocke?” I asked. She nodded. “Sorry, kind of blurted it for some reason.”

“What reason?” she asked. 

“I really couldn’t tell you. It…came to me?” I asked, pretending that was all. 

 

Betsy frowned but nodded. “Thank you.”

“No problem. Anything else?” I asked. She shook her head. “Are you coming to the raid tonight?” 

“If you want me to,” she said. 

“What do you want to do?” I asked. 

“Whatever you want,” she said.

“I want to have sex,” I said, that shut her up. “Betsy, I’m not sure what your backstory is. Why you are with the Hand. Or what your hopes and dreams are. But here you can do whatever you want. You could walk out the door and go back to the Hand. You could disappear into the wind and I would cover for you to Elektra. I will be going tonight because I have spent too long running around this city trying to get to this point. You can choose to go or not. Practice your Nen even. Trust me, this skill isn’t an immediate powerup. You will need to practice for hundreds of hours just to scratch the surface, so start doing it now, okay?”

She acted like she was going to say something but instead simply nodded. I patted her shoulder, giving her chest one more look before turning around and finding a room to sleep in. I might as well catch up on sleep. I was in bed with a Demon all night.