Jen is still asleep by the time I carefully pull myself out from her arm and creep out of bed, doing my best not to wake her, figuring I'd better let her sleep in after our late night. Unfortunately, there's not really a stealthy way to put on your pants no matter how hard you try, and Jen awakens to the sight of me doing that undignified one-legged hop while trying to get my leg through one of the holes.
"You know, I'd hate to point out the obvious, but couldn't you just have willed your clothes on instead of...whatever this is supposed to be?" She says, barely containing her laughter as she watches me make a fool of myself.
"Hey, if you've been getting dressed the same way for 30 years, it sort of becomes a habit. Also, using reality warping for every single mundane task seems like a bit of a waste." I finally get my jeans on properly and reach for my t-shirt, but get sidetracked as Jen gets out of bed herself, dropping the bedsheet covering her nude form in the process, and stretches her back with a yawn.
"So, what's the hurry? You don't really strike me as the type to leave before a girl wakes up" Jen says while sliding on an oversized t-shirt, though how she managed to find a shirt that almost reaches her knees in Hulk form I'll never know. Then again, this is the U.S, you can probably get tops that doubles as car covers if you look hard enough.
I shake my head, snapping myself out of my daze "Uh, no, I'm not, but I wasn't sure if you'd be hungover or not after last night and I figured I'd let you sleep in. You feeling okay? Because I got the ultimate hangover cure right here."
"Aww, I appreciate it, but don't worry, it'll take more than we had last night to lay out She-Hulk. Had I been in my human form, I'd probably be in a coma. Gamma powers are awesome." She flexes her arm and strikes a pose that I think is supposed to look badass but just looks comical when combined with the huge shirt draped over her. Judging by her grin, she knows it too.
I give her an exagerated long-suffering look "You want some breakfast anyway, or is your ego enough to sustain you 'til lunch?"
I simply teleport myself to the kitchen, quickly avoiding the pillow Jen tosses at me in response. "Maybe you should have some coffee too, you seem a little cranky this morning."
...
I'm still not sold on conjuring up things I'm planning on eating, even though I'm aware that it's a completely arbitrary dislike, but thanks to Jen apparently living mostly off take-out, the meagre contents of her kitchen means I'll either have to simply warp up some groceries or actually go to a store, and even mutant powers isn't enough to make that pleasant. I figure I might as well skip the middle man entirerly and a basic but satisfying breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast appears on the table.
Jen whistles as she slides down in the chair opposite mine "What was that about not using your powers for mundane tasks again?" She looks down on her plate and chuckles "Kudos on the bacon and eggs smiley face too."
I shrug as I sit down as well and take a bite of toast "Well, it was either this or breakfast would have been a packet of ramen from 2003. And I thought my old place had a depressing cupboard."
She sighs as she begins eating "I admit it, I'm terrible at grocery shopping... and pretty much everything kitchen-related. I guess being an Avenger kind of spoiled me a little, it's easy to get lazy about domestic stuff when you have an actual butler. You do any cooking? I mean, without using your ridiculously broken powers?"
"I've been living on my own since I was 16, I learned fast. I'm not MUCH of a cook, but I can do the basics pretty well."
Jen blinks "16?!"
"It's a long story, it's not anything bad but I don't like talking about it." I decide to switch topics "I had something I was planning on taking care of today, do you have enough information to get started on our case against Stark?"
"Huh? Oh, yes, I've started putting together what we need, and once Urich gets in contact with me, we should be able to move. I won't have a timeframe until I've gotten a closer look at his info though. Why, you have some other plans to turn the planet upside down that you haven't gotten around to yet?"
"Well, I guess that depends on how things turn out, but I was just planning on going on a field trip for the day."
...
"Johan!"
The morning classes have just finished up at the Xavier Mansion when I appear in the hallway, earning surprised shrieks from the startled kids, with one exception. Ellie breaks away from the group and rushes over to me, throwing her arms around me in a hug. She looks mostly the same as the last time I saw her, with the exception of her hair, which has been cut so short it almost looks like a buzzcut.
"Good to see you again, kid. You been staying out of trouble?"
"Please, you ever met the X-Men before? They consider it to be a good school day as long as the school hasn't exploded or been attacked by Sentinels."
"Fair point. How are you settling in?"
She pulls away "Pretty good, it's a bit different than my old school on Genosha, but not too much, and Miss Frost has been helping a lot. Where have you been? Some of the kids say they overheard Professor Xavier and Mr Wagner mention you, but nothing else."
"Oh, that, that was just part of a... redistribution project I was working on. Oh, and I went to space for a bit."
That throws her. "SPACE?!"
Before I can answer, Scott Summers comes rushing out of the classroom to see what the noise was about, and stops cold when he spots me. I notice he's no longer wearing his glasses. "...Ginnungagap?"
I nod at him "Mr Summers. I see you're getting along without your sunglasses. Hows life seeing the world without feeling like you're staring into a Virtual Boy?"
Ellie blinks, confused "A what?"
"Before your time, don't worry about it."
Summers clears his throat "Uh, very well, thank you. Like you said, it took some getting used to, but I adapted quickly enough." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the familiar visor "I still carry this with me though, I feel I'm a bit too old to switch codenames now. Are you just here to visit , or did you have something you wished to discuss with the rest of the faculty?"
"Eh, a little of both actually. Is Professor Xavier busy?"
"He's in a meeting, but if you don't mind waiting..."
"He doesn't!" Ellie says and begins pulling me into the mansion living room, followed by a small group of students. Santo I recognize immediatly from my first visit, and the girl with the silver skin is probably Mercury. The girl dressed in muslim robes I'm guessing is Dust. Santo claps a hand on my back.
"Magic Man, it's great to see you again! You been out there busting heads for us mutants?"
"Not JUST mutants, but yeah, there's been some head busting. And don't call me that!" I sit down in the recliner Ellie leads me to "Seriously, half the people I meet call me Magic Man now because one of you started using that name on Twitter! The mobsters who were trying to shoot me last night even used it!"
"You got shot?!" Ellie gasps.
"What? No, they TRIED shooting me. Come on, you think bullets work on me?"
"Why were they shooting at you at all?!"
"I was out with someone, and- look, details don't matter. Long story short, it didn't work for them, and it wont work for anyone else."
Mercury snaps her fingers, realizing something "Hey, yeah, now I remember, weren't you at the Front Line offices yesterday too? Yeah, I saw photos of you on Instagram, what were you doing there?"
"I talked with the editor, it's part of this long-term thing I'm working on."
"Pfft, lame!" Santo says, sliding down in the couch next to me "Come on, let's hear the details about that mobster thing, I bet there's more to it than you're telling us!"
"Pathetic!" A snide voice from behind says, and a short, skinny teenage boy with neatly cropped pink hair steps through the door from the hallway on the other side of the room. "Look at you, fawning over this creep like he's the second coming of Magneto, don't you have any dignity Santo?!"
The group around me groans, and Santo rolls his eyes at what appears to be a very old argument. "Oh god, not again, I can't listen to another one of your speeches, Quire!"
Oh, THIS little jerk. "Ah, so you must be Quentin Quire."
Quire raises his chin, giving me a haughty look "Hah, even the so-called Magic Man has heard of me."
"Oh yeah, I've heard all about the self-absorbed brat who thought he and his friends were so damn edgy by dressing in the mutant equivalent of KKK robes and screamed about mutant superiority, even though they all had to dope themselves up to the gills just to attack some human street scum. Yeah, you're a real symbol for mutantkind, Quire."
The kids giggle, even as Quire turns an interesting shade of red and clenches his fists "You think you're so damn great, don't you? Everyone acts like you're the mutant messiah, but I don't care how powerful you are, you'll never be a real mutant, not like me, not like Magneto, people who have actually fought and struggled for freedom! You just wave your hand around and everyone falls to their knees for you!" He smirks and turns towards the others "But if he's so fucking great, how come he didn't bring back any of your friends? Remember Tag, Santo? Or Icarus? He brought back an entire island of people, but he couldn't be bothered with them?"
The room goes silent as Santo and the others switch between anger at Quire and shock as they realize he's technically right. Quire himself looks like he's about to float off the ground just from smugness alone.
I shrug. "I can bring them back, if you want."
Quire makes a choking noise, and Santo gapes at me "Y-you can?! Why havent you?"
"Nobody asked me to. Genosha was the only major resurrection I was planning to do on my own initiative, but since I'm here anyway, I might as well fix this too. Just ask your teachers to give me a list who's dead and who isn't and bring their remains to the mansion grounds, and I can get them back on their feet in no time."
Santos is out the door before I'm done talking, followed closely by Mercury, and I turn back to Quire. "Oh, and Quentin? Stop trying to provoke me, because even if you win, you're not going to like the results."