Brotherhood [X-Men Movieverse, gen]
Title: Brotherhood
Recipient: Karabair/likeadeuce for xmmficathon 2009.
Request Used: Scott has a brother who's not at the school. What happened with that?
Rating: PG
Summary: Scott has to help out his younger brother, Alex, who is in totally over his head. Alex, on the other hand, is not in over his head, his brother just needs to butt out.
Notes: Thanks to Aaron for the beta.
Scott was on his way to get his little brother out of a jam. Which, when he thought about it, was kind of cool. Since they had grown up separately, with Scott bouncing around foster homes before finding his way to Xavier's while Alex was raised in the perfect nuclear suburban family, there hadn't been a lot of opportunities for them to fill the typical sibling roles. Ever since the Professor had sent him on this trip, Scott had been practicing what he would say in his head, trying to find the perfect words to convey the fact that he loved and respected his Alex, but he was mildly disappointed, too. The perfect speech to get Alex to change his course of action, but to feel like he was doing it of his own accord.
Trying to squeeze fifteen years of lost big brother time into one talk is probably not going to work out too well, Jean's voice reminded him. It wasn't actually Jean, of course; she was immersed in her med school studies at Columbia and it was unlikely that she would take a breath until the winter holiday. He often heard Jean, though - her voice was the medium for what he thought of as his "sensible self," reminding him of things he really needed to hear in Jean's trademark gentle, wry tone. Of course, it resulted in confusion on the rare occasions that the real Jean projected a thought to him; but what wasn't confusing when you were in love with a telepath?
His sensible side was right, of course. He was putting too much into this little intervention, or whatever it was. Professor Xavier had received a tip from a friend in Boston that a mutant group from MIT was planning a counter-protest of an extreme anti-mutant rally and there were rumors they had planned some extreme measures of their own. It turned out that the leader of the mutant group was one Alex Summers, student of Geoscience and brother of Scott. Xavier thought it would be a good idea to send Scott to talk to Alex and try to steer him towards more peaceful political action before things got out of control. Ororo had come along to provide backup. Scott conceded that there were times when a pretty girl could probably be more persuasive than he could, no matter how good his speech was.
Ororo broke the silence of the car's interior. "I had barely even remembered that you had a brother, Scott. And I definitely didn't know he was a mutant until today - why have I never seen him at the mansion?"
Scott shrugged. "Alex is that rare mutant kid who has never needed a place like the school. After our parents died, he was adopted by this couple who have always been amazing to him, as far as I can tell. When his powers manifested, they were totally supportive. I still remember the letter he sent to me after he found out he was a mutant - 'Dear Scott, Turns out I'm a mutant! We were on this ski trip in Aspen and I was on this killer slope and one second I was losing my balance, and the next second this stuff comes blasting out of my hands! The doctor Mom and Dad took me to says it's plasma. I broke my leg, but it's still totally sweet, right? Love, Alex.'"
Ororo snickered.
"At this point, he had no idea I was a mutant. He thought I just had a weird eye condition and that Xavier's was a special education school. All technically true, I suppose, but it was pretty awkward admitting I'd been lying to him for so long. Especially after he'd been so open with me."
Ororo asked, "Is he that...open with everybody?"
Scott nodded. "I think so. Alex has never lacked confidence, that's for sure."
***
Alex did not seem that confident when they found him, meeting with other mutant students on the porch of the derelict house where he rented an apartment. He looked positively stressed, and his mood didn't seem to improve when Scott and Ororo stepped out of the sports car and joined the group.
He looked startled, in fact. "Scott! This is...a surprise. Since when are we spontaneous?"
Scott smiled slightly. "I can't just pay my little brother an impromptu visit?"
"Not if you want me to believe you haven't been replaced by a shape-shifting alien or an android sent to murder me. The last time we had dinner, it involved two months of planning, and I seem to remember a typed itinerary."
"OK, you got me. I'm here for a reason. Can we talk in private?" Scott glanced warily at the other kids on the porch - a pink-haired vicious-looking girl, a hulking kid with skin the color of paper, and a tall, beautiful girl with lime green hair.
Alex rubbed at his temple. "Now is not really a great time. But, sure, I can give you a few minutes - let's go up to my room."
As they walked up the interior stairs to Alex's apartment, Scott noticed that the green-haired girl had followed them, though Alex didn't seem to think anything of it. They settled themselves on the motley collection of living room furniture, most of which looked like it had spent some time on a curb in the recent past. Scott glanced significantly from the girl to Alex.
"I'm Lorna," she introduced herself before Alex could take the hint. "And you must be Scott," she said, her gaze pausing on his red-lensed glasses. "I've been looking forward to meeting you. Are you here for the action?"
Alex piped in, "Lorna and I have been seeing each other for a while now, and she and I co-founded M.O.M. Whatever you came here to talk about, she can hear it."
"Mom?" Ororo asked.
"Mutants of M.I.T," Alex replied. "You saw some of the group downstairs, preparing for tomorrow's action."
Alex didn't catch it but Lorna noticed Ororo's expression. She rolled her eyes. "I know, I know, it's a lame acronym but it's all we could agree on. That Sarah girl wanted it to be the 'Mutant and Inter-gene Liberation Front, so we're lucky we ended up with what we did."
At this point, Scott realized that things were already not going quite how he had planned them, so he took time to introduce Ororo and exchange pleasantries about their trip from New York. He ran through what he was going to say again in his mind - firm, a little disapproving, but respectful. But not too firm or disapproving, Jean's voice reminded him, or you may sound like an ass. Words of wisdom, as always.
"Tomorrow's 'action,'" Scott began, "is actually what we came to talk to you about. We heard some rumors that it should be a pretty big thing."
Alex's tone was a little cautious, but obviously proud. He had put a lot into this group. "I hope so. This anti-mutant group, the 'Friends of Humanity' is pretty out there - their rallies always involve burning mutants in effigy and really hateful speeches. They get people really stirred up against us - they're toxic."
Ororo nodded her head. She and Scott had heard all about this kind of anti-mutant fanaticism but thanks to the isolated nature of their school, they had never had to face much of it themselves. "So you're planning a counter-protest," Ororo said.
Lorna responded, "We've done counter-protests before, but they're not that effective. We stay behind our fence, hold our signs, and the bigots yell and use us as examples of 'freakishness'. Sometimes they throw rocks and things at us, but we can't fight back because the cops are just waiting for one of us to step out of line so they can throw us all in jail. What we have planned for tomorrow is much more active."
This was the entry point Scott had been waiting for. "Alex, I had really hoped you knew better than this. Violence is not the answer; that's not how effective change -"
Alex interrupted him. "Who said anything about violence? Our plan is to make sure their rally is a total disaster."
"And how are you planning to do that?"
Alex and Lorna looked at each other. "Stink bombs and, er, electrical interferences? Uh, we're still working out the exact details," said Alex.
Scott scoffed. "You honestly think you can pull that off without it escalating into violence? You're going to get arrested, or worse! And the coverage will give all mutants a bad name."
"As though we don't have a bad name, already!" said Lorna, outraged. "And anyway, what do you know about the problems that mutants face? You can both pass for baseline human but instead of working for greater understanding, you just hide away in your little country estate."
Scott turned toward Alex with surprise, and Alex answered the unspoken question. "Yes, I told her about your little school; don't act so shocked. And she has a point - I don't have time to get all Washington/Du Bois with you here. I have actual work to do."
"I really think that's a poorly chosen analogy, Alex - "
Alex put an end to the conversation by rolling his eyes, standing up and walking for the door.
"Wait," Ororo said. "Could I join you guys? I think I know just how to make sure this rally is a disaster."
This was just too much for Scott. "Ororo!"
She turned to him and spoke calmly. "Don't you ever want to do something, Scott? I've listened to your arguments, and I'm not convinced. You should have worked on your speech longer."
***
Scott knew he should feel guilty about feeling so smug that the "action" was shaping up to be a complete disaster. That's a complicated web of feeling there, mister, Jean's voice pointed out. Which it was. But the smugness and the absence of guilt and the guilt over the absence of guilt remained. He was watching the rally from the sidelines, in his role as conscientious objector.
As Lorna had foreseen, the Friends of Humanity seemed happy that the mutant protesters were in attendance at the rally, giving them a target for their venom. The more active of the anti-mutant activists were lobbing rocks and trash in their general direction while bored cops stood by. M.O.M. was, predictably, having trouble getting its act together. Someone had gotten lost on the way to the protest and the leaflets were missing. Meanwhile, surreptitious usage of stink bombs seemed to have done little to disgust the crowd. Some of the mutants were restless from the lack of progress and Scott worried that violence couldn't be far away.
Then the camera crews showed up and Scott pulled his ball cap low over his face. He wished that he could just grab Ororo and get out of there. If there was one thing they didn't need, it was live footage of a mutant riot. He had resolved to walk over and try to put a stop to things when Ororo took charge. Clouds rolled in overhead and the temperature began to slowly drop. A spattering of cold rain pelted protesters, counter-protesters, news crews, apathetic police and conscientious objectors alike.
The Friends of Humanity leadership, now that the cameras were rolling, decided to start the main event. "My fellow-SKREE-mans!" a man on stage said into a recalcitrant microphone. "For too-SKREEEE-erated the pres-SKREEEE-ants in our great-SKREE!" The crowd, progressively getting colder and wetter, didn't seem too impressed by the feedback-riddled speech. Already some of the people in the lightest clothing were peeling off, heading for a conveniently nearby Starbucks. Unnoticed by anyone, Lorna was focused on the sound system.
As the rain and the resident mistress of magnetism did their work, and the Friends of Humanity failed to fix the P.A. system, boredom took its toll on the crowd. Seeing the crowd gradually disperse, the speaker took a different approach. "So, without further ado-SKREEEEEEEEEEEK!!! Oh, let's just set the damn-SKREE-ire." Microphone abandoned to a few catcalls, the leadership of Friends of Humanity coalesced around a large mutant effigy bearing, predictably, two heads, each with a moronically evil expression. Triumphantly, they hoisted up the effigy and the crowd, damped and dampened, gave a cheer. This was normally the climax of a rally but right now the protesters weren't worried about burning it prematurely. With great ceremony, the effigy was paraded before the cameras before it being hung in the designated "Effigy-related Free Speech Zone".
"Friends of humanity!" a man shouted, eschewing amplification. "I give you-the mutant menace! The freaks that want to go to school with your kids! May this country one day wake up and give them what they deserve!" More cheers. A lighter was set to the base of the effigy. The flickering flame promptly went out. The lighter was tried again and again. Each time it would spark but the flame would go out before reaching the effigy. Frustrated, the Friends tried other lighters. They doused the effigy with copious amounts of lighter fluid. Nothing was working as the rain came down harder and colder. No one except Scott noticed the young man with snow white hair and an MIT chemistry shirt who was watching the effigy with a fixed intensity.
It was amazing. Scott had to hand it to Alex-the protest had been broken up. The Friends of Humanity leadership were cursing and ranting and blaming mutants for the weather and the sound system and the fire-resistant effigy and the conveniently located Starbucks. The camera crews and the protesters were packing up and clearing out.
"Goddamn mutants!" shouted a frustrated Friend. He picked up a handy chunk of concrete and hurled it, striking Alex in the shoulder. "Goddamn freaks!" Immediately, the scowly pink-haired girl had abandoned her assigned position as lookout and sign-carrier. Popping sharp bones out of her shoulders, she advanced on the seething Friends, both threatening and creepy. The police were suddenly mobilized, although against her or the rock-thrower, it was impossible to tell.
Scott realized that he had been correct. There had been no way to prevent violence but he no longer felt so smug about it. The action had been so amazing, draining the anger and hateful energy out of the crowd so subtly, so easily, denying them the spectacle and conflict the protesters so obviously craved. And now.
This doesn't seem like a time to be a conscientious objector, Jean's voice suggested. That was true; now was a time to be a hero.
***
They were sitting in Alex's living room again, going over the post mortem for the twentieth time. "I knew that Sarah girl was trouble," Alex repeated. "I don't even know where she came from - I know she doesn't go to M.I.T. I was just so focused on being inclusive of all mutants, I didn't ask enough questions!"
Lorna tried to calm him. "You can't blame yourself for that; there's nothing wrong with wanting to create a safe space." She was leaning back in her chair, engaged in what was obviously a favorite nervous activity - contorting a spoon into various shapes in mid-air. Ororo and Scott gave each other a glance - this was one of Mr. Lensherr's favorite party tricks.
Alex cleared his throat. "Well, I've got to hand it to you, Scott. You uh, you really came through. If you hadn't blown Sarah's bone knives out of her hands..." Silence fell as Alex's discomfort permeated the group. He was admitting that his older brother had been right while he, the wayward younger brother, had been wrong. Scott had an entire speech worked out for this circumstance. He decided it was crap.
"Would you guys like to come up to visit us at the school sometime?" he said instead. "Like, in the next couple of weeks?"
Alex looked up in surprise. "Visit your mutant ivory tower? You're not afraid the Friends of Humanity or someone will follow me there and ruin things for you?"
Scott shrugged. "Maybe we need to have our 'ivory tower' ruined a little. Maybe we do spend too much time thinking and not enough time acting. I think M.O.M. has a lot that it can tell us. And I think the Professor would really like to meet you...both of you." Scott knew this would be true, though he definitely would need to prepare Xavier for the shock of meeting someone with abilities so close to those of his old friend.
A smile spread across Alex's face. "Yeah, Scott, I think that would be really cool."
That's what being a big brother feels like, Jean's voice echoed in his mind. And he smiled to himself, knowing it to be true.
Recipient: Karabair/likeadeuce for xmmficathon 2009.
Request Used: Scott has a brother who's not at the school. What happened with that?
Rating: PG
Summary: Scott has to help out his younger brother, Alex, who is in totally over his head. Alex, on the other hand, is not in over his head, his brother just needs to butt out.
Notes: Thanks to Aaron for the beta.
Scott was on his way to get his little brother out of a jam. Which, when he thought about it, was kind of cool. Since they had grown up separately, with Scott bouncing around foster homes before finding his way to Xavier's while Alex was raised in the perfect nuclear suburban family, there hadn't been a lot of opportunities for them to fill the typical sibling roles. Ever since the Professor had sent him on this trip, Scott had been practicing what he would say in his head, trying to find the perfect words to convey the fact that he loved and respected his Alex, but he was mildly disappointed, too. The perfect speech to get Alex to change his course of action, but to feel like he was doing it of his own accord.
Trying to squeeze fifteen years of lost big brother time into one talk is probably not going to work out too well, Jean's voice reminded him. It wasn't actually Jean, of course; she was immersed in her med school studies at Columbia and it was unlikely that she would take a breath until the winter holiday. He often heard Jean, though - her voice was the medium for what he thought of as his "sensible self," reminding him of things he really needed to hear in Jean's trademark gentle, wry tone. Of course, it resulted in confusion on the rare occasions that the real Jean projected a thought to him; but what wasn't confusing when you were in love with a telepath?
His sensible side was right, of course. He was putting too much into this little intervention, or whatever it was. Professor Xavier had received a tip from a friend in Boston that a mutant group from MIT was planning a counter-protest of an extreme anti-mutant rally and there were rumors they had planned some extreme measures of their own. It turned out that the leader of the mutant group was one Alex Summers, student of Geoscience and brother of Scott. Xavier thought it would be a good idea to send Scott to talk to Alex and try to steer him towards more peaceful political action before things got out of control. Ororo had come along to provide backup. Scott conceded that there were times when a pretty girl could probably be more persuasive than he could, no matter how good his speech was.
Ororo broke the silence of the car's interior. "I had barely even remembered that you had a brother, Scott. And I definitely didn't know he was a mutant until today - why have I never seen him at the mansion?"
Scott shrugged. "Alex is that rare mutant kid who has never needed a place like the school. After our parents died, he was adopted by this couple who have always been amazing to him, as far as I can tell. When his powers manifested, they were totally supportive. I still remember the letter he sent to me after he found out he was a mutant - 'Dear Scott, Turns out I'm a mutant! We were on this ski trip in Aspen and I was on this killer slope and one second I was losing my balance, and the next second this stuff comes blasting out of my hands! The doctor Mom and Dad took me to says it's plasma. I broke my leg, but it's still totally sweet, right? Love, Alex.'"
Ororo snickered.
"At this point, he had no idea I was a mutant. He thought I just had a weird eye condition and that Xavier's was a special education school. All technically true, I suppose, but it was pretty awkward admitting I'd been lying to him for so long. Especially after he'd been so open with me."
Ororo asked, "Is he that...open with everybody?"
Scott nodded. "I think so. Alex has never lacked confidence, that's for sure."
***
Alex did not seem that confident when they found him, meeting with other mutant students on the porch of the derelict house where he rented an apartment. He looked positively stressed, and his mood didn't seem to improve when Scott and Ororo stepped out of the sports car and joined the group.
He looked startled, in fact. "Scott! This is...a surprise. Since when are we spontaneous?"
Scott smiled slightly. "I can't just pay my little brother an impromptu visit?"
"Not if you want me to believe you haven't been replaced by a shape-shifting alien or an android sent to murder me. The last time we had dinner, it involved two months of planning, and I seem to remember a typed itinerary."
"OK, you got me. I'm here for a reason. Can we talk in private?" Scott glanced warily at the other kids on the porch - a pink-haired vicious-looking girl, a hulking kid with skin the color of paper, and a tall, beautiful girl with lime green hair.
Alex rubbed at his temple. "Now is not really a great time. But, sure, I can give you a few minutes - let's go up to my room."
As they walked up the interior stairs to Alex's apartment, Scott noticed that the green-haired girl had followed them, though Alex didn't seem to think anything of it. They settled themselves on the motley collection of living room furniture, most of which looked like it had spent some time on a curb in the recent past. Scott glanced significantly from the girl to Alex.
"I'm Lorna," she introduced herself before Alex could take the hint. "And you must be Scott," she said, her gaze pausing on his red-lensed glasses. "I've been looking forward to meeting you. Are you here for the action?"
Alex piped in, "Lorna and I have been seeing each other for a while now, and she and I co-founded M.O.M. Whatever you came here to talk about, she can hear it."
"Mom?" Ororo asked.
"Mutants of M.I.T," Alex replied. "You saw some of the group downstairs, preparing for tomorrow's action."
Alex didn't catch it but Lorna noticed Ororo's expression. She rolled her eyes. "I know, I know, it's a lame acronym but it's all we could agree on. That Sarah girl wanted it to be the 'Mutant and Inter-gene Liberation Front, so we're lucky we ended up with what we did."
At this point, Scott realized that things were already not going quite how he had planned them, so he took time to introduce Ororo and exchange pleasantries about their trip from New York. He ran through what he was going to say again in his mind - firm, a little disapproving, but respectful. But not too firm or disapproving, Jean's voice reminded him, or you may sound like an ass. Words of wisdom, as always.
"Tomorrow's 'action,'" Scott began, "is actually what we came to talk to you about. We heard some rumors that it should be a pretty big thing."
Alex's tone was a little cautious, but obviously proud. He had put a lot into this group. "I hope so. This anti-mutant group, the 'Friends of Humanity' is pretty out there - their rallies always involve burning mutants in effigy and really hateful speeches. They get people really stirred up against us - they're toxic."
Ororo nodded her head. She and Scott had heard all about this kind of anti-mutant fanaticism but thanks to the isolated nature of their school, they had never had to face much of it themselves. "So you're planning a counter-protest," Ororo said.
Lorna responded, "We've done counter-protests before, but they're not that effective. We stay behind our fence, hold our signs, and the bigots yell and use us as examples of 'freakishness'. Sometimes they throw rocks and things at us, but we can't fight back because the cops are just waiting for one of us to step out of line so they can throw us all in jail. What we have planned for tomorrow is much more active."
This was the entry point Scott had been waiting for. "Alex, I had really hoped you knew better than this. Violence is not the answer; that's not how effective change -"
Alex interrupted him. "Who said anything about violence? Our plan is to make sure their rally is a total disaster."
"And how are you planning to do that?"
Alex and Lorna looked at each other. "Stink bombs and, er, electrical interferences? Uh, we're still working out the exact details," said Alex.
Scott scoffed. "You honestly think you can pull that off without it escalating into violence? You're going to get arrested, or worse! And the coverage will give all mutants a bad name."
"As though we don't have a bad name, already!" said Lorna, outraged. "And anyway, what do you know about the problems that mutants face? You can both pass for baseline human but instead of working for greater understanding, you just hide away in your little country estate."
Scott turned toward Alex with surprise, and Alex answered the unspoken question. "Yes, I told her about your little school; don't act so shocked. And she has a point - I don't have time to get all Washington/Du Bois with you here. I have actual work to do."
"I really think that's a poorly chosen analogy, Alex - "
Alex put an end to the conversation by rolling his eyes, standing up and walking for the door.
"Wait," Ororo said. "Could I join you guys? I think I know just how to make sure this rally is a disaster."
This was just too much for Scott. "Ororo!"
She turned to him and spoke calmly. "Don't you ever want to do something, Scott? I've listened to your arguments, and I'm not convinced. You should have worked on your speech longer."
***
Scott knew he should feel guilty about feeling so smug that the "action" was shaping up to be a complete disaster. That's a complicated web of feeling there, mister, Jean's voice pointed out. Which it was. But the smugness and the absence of guilt and the guilt over the absence of guilt remained. He was watching the rally from the sidelines, in his role as conscientious objector.
As Lorna had foreseen, the Friends of Humanity seemed happy that the mutant protesters were in attendance at the rally, giving them a target for their venom. The more active of the anti-mutant activists were lobbing rocks and trash in their general direction while bored cops stood by. M.O.M. was, predictably, having trouble getting its act together. Someone had gotten lost on the way to the protest and the leaflets were missing. Meanwhile, surreptitious usage of stink bombs seemed to have done little to disgust the crowd. Some of the mutants were restless from the lack of progress and Scott worried that violence couldn't be far away.
Then the camera crews showed up and Scott pulled his ball cap low over his face. He wished that he could just grab Ororo and get out of there. If there was one thing they didn't need, it was live footage of a mutant riot. He had resolved to walk over and try to put a stop to things when Ororo took charge. Clouds rolled in overhead and the temperature began to slowly drop. A spattering of cold rain pelted protesters, counter-protesters, news crews, apathetic police and conscientious objectors alike.
The Friends of Humanity leadership, now that the cameras were rolling, decided to start the main event. "My fellow-SKREE-mans!" a man on stage said into a recalcitrant microphone. "For too-SKREEEE-erated the pres-SKREEEE-ants in our great-SKREE!" The crowd, progressively getting colder and wetter, didn't seem too impressed by the feedback-riddled speech. Already some of the people in the lightest clothing were peeling off, heading for a conveniently nearby Starbucks. Unnoticed by anyone, Lorna was focused on the sound system.
As the rain and the resident mistress of magnetism did their work, and the Friends of Humanity failed to fix the P.A. system, boredom took its toll on the crowd. Seeing the crowd gradually disperse, the speaker took a different approach. "So, without further ado-SKREEEEEEEEEEEK!!! Oh, let's just set the damn-SKREE-ire." Microphone abandoned to a few catcalls, the leadership of Friends of Humanity coalesced around a large mutant effigy bearing, predictably, two heads, each with a moronically evil expression. Triumphantly, they hoisted up the effigy and the crowd, damped and dampened, gave a cheer. This was normally the climax of a rally but right now the protesters weren't worried about burning it prematurely. With great ceremony, the effigy was paraded before the cameras before it being hung in the designated "Effigy-related Free Speech Zone".
"Friends of humanity!" a man shouted, eschewing amplification. "I give you-the mutant menace! The freaks that want to go to school with your kids! May this country one day wake up and give them what they deserve!" More cheers. A lighter was set to the base of the effigy. The flickering flame promptly went out. The lighter was tried again and again. Each time it would spark but the flame would go out before reaching the effigy. Frustrated, the Friends tried other lighters. They doused the effigy with copious amounts of lighter fluid. Nothing was working as the rain came down harder and colder. No one except Scott noticed the young man with snow white hair and an MIT chemistry shirt who was watching the effigy with a fixed intensity.
It was amazing. Scott had to hand it to Alex-the protest had been broken up. The Friends of Humanity leadership were cursing and ranting and blaming mutants for the weather and the sound system and the fire-resistant effigy and the conveniently located Starbucks. The camera crews and the protesters were packing up and clearing out.
"Goddamn mutants!" shouted a frustrated Friend. He picked up a handy chunk of concrete and hurled it, striking Alex in the shoulder. "Goddamn freaks!" Immediately, the scowly pink-haired girl had abandoned her assigned position as lookout and sign-carrier. Popping sharp bones out of her shoulders, she advanced on the seething Friends, both threatening and creepy. The police were suddenly mobilized, although against her or the rock-thrower, it was impossible to tell.
Scott realized that he had been correct. There had been no way to prevent violence but he no longer felt so smug about it. The action had been so amazing, draining the anger and hateful energy out of the crowd so subtly, so easily, denying them the spectacle and conflict the protesters so obviously craved. And now.
This doesn't seem like a time to be a conscientious objector, Jean's voice suggested. That was true; now was a time to be a hero.
***
They were sitting in Alex's living room again, going over the post mortem for the twentieth time. "I knew that Sarah girl was trouble," Alex repeated. "I don't even know where she came from - I know she doesn't go to M.I.T. I was just so focused on being inclusive of all mutants, I didn't ask enough questions!"
Lorna tried to calm him. "You can't blame yourself for that; there's nothing wrong with wanting to create a safe space." She was leaning back in her chair, engaged in what was obviously a favorite nervous activity - contorting a spoon into various shapes in mid-air. Ororo and Scott gave each other a glance - this was one of Mr. Lensherr's favorite party tricks.
Alex cleared his throat. "Well, I've got to hand it to you, Scott. You uh, you really came through. If you hadn't blown Sarah's bone knives out of her hands..." Silence fell as Alex's discomfort permeated the group. He was admitting that his older brother had been right while he, the wayward younger brother, had been wrong. Scott had an entire speech worked out for this circumstance. He decided it was crap.
"Would you guys like to come up to visit us at the school sometime?" he said instead. "Like, in the next couple of weeks?"
Alex looked up in surprise. "Visit your mutant ivory tower? You're not afraid the Friends of Humanity or someone will follow me there and ruin things for you?"
Scott shrugged. "Maybe we need to have our 'ivory tower' ruined a little. Maybe we do spend too much time thinking and not enough time acting. I think M.O.M. has a lot that it can tell us. And I think the Professor would really like to meet you...both of you." Scott knew this would be true, though he definitely would need to prepare Xavier for the shock of meeting someone with abilities so close to those of his old friend.
A smile spread across Alex's face. "Yeah, Scott, I think that would be really cool."
That's what being a big brother feels like, Jean's voice echoed in his mind. And he smiled to himself, knowing it to be true.