"Damian, did you get... taller?" Jean asked and I smiled down at her from my new height of seven feet.
"Why yes, yes I have."
"Why?"
"Because I could." And definitely not because I got somewhat insecure about Betty who was about as tall as I used to be, not at all.
...admittedly, I may have gotten a bit too used to being able to literally look down on anyone in the school. Laura liked my new height though. She made it very clear by sitting on my shoulders at any opportunity and look down at other people, much like she was doing right now. My adorable friend has been addicted to the rush of being above others and I was the one responsible for her addiction.
"My lord!" Though I had some other things I was responsible for too. Like the very disturbed look on Jean's face as Valeria called out to me and almost took knee if I hadn't stopped her from doing so. "I am here to inform you that the professor Cueball is taking me to the Baxter building."
"It's professor Xavier." Jean intersected with a light glare and Valeria looked at her with some confusion before a look of realization appeared on her face.
"If that's how you wish for me to call him then I shall do so, lady of fire. As long as you have no objections, my lord." She said with a nod and Jean looked at me with a bewildered expression, wanting answers about her new title.
"No, you can just do as Jean wants." But I had no idea either and also had no desire to deal with Valeria's brand of crazy right now. "Have fun at the Baxter building." I simply waved in her way, an action copied by Laura from my shoulders, and let her go with a very happy expression.
"Do I want to know what exactly she meant by that title she gave me?" Jean asked with a raised eyebrow and I thought about some of the things I knew about the redhead that could earn her a name like 'Lady of Fire', and then shrugged after a moment of contemplation.
"Probably not." Today was not the day to give her trauma about how the man she trusted more than anyone basically crippled her mind and that there was a non zero chance that she would one day turn into a giant flaming chicken that destroyed star systems and killed billions due to inability to process trauma combined with brainwashing from evil people that did not understand the scope of her powers before blowing up in some weird ploy for redemption.
I probably would do that in July in case we didn't have fireworks.
"Still having hard time getting my head around this whole time travel thing." Jean said with a sigh. "Traveling through time, how crazy is that?!" Ah you sweet summer child.
"Ten bucks says we get to see something even more ridiculous by the end of this year." I snorted, considering the kind of world we were living in; that would be the easiest ten bucks I would make in my life.
"I'll take that bet." I said as I leaned down, finally letting Laura touch the ground once more with a very irritated expression as she was once more the shortest person in the room.
"So, I wasn't really gonna ask but... is there a reason Valeria acts like you are the greatest thing since sliced bread?" Jean asked with a raised eyebrow and I chuckled for a moment before answering.
"Yup, as it turns out I get to have cults in the future." I said with a grin as I shapeshifter my new unstable molecule clothes into the garbs of a priest. "For I am a god who symbolizes both destruction and creation, endings and beginnings, in the form of a flaming specter that looks down upon the world from the endless skies." I dramatically declared with my arms wide open before my self control finally snapped and I started to laugh.
Honestly; I was pretty much waiting for people to declare me the second coming of devil in the future, which still likely would happen, and instead learned that people decided to make me into a religion. Though a part of me wondered how exactly someone as smart as Valeria ended up in a cult like that.
"Is it really okay to have an actual cultist here?" Jean asked with a frown and I, being the bigger man, let go of that chance to tell her about how X-Men was Xavier's cult. "Aren't they meant to be, you know, mentally unstable?"
"Meh, I'm sure it will be fine." I shrugged.
"I think you should be more worried about the giant woman of red muscles." Laura interjected with a frown. Was her instincts as a 'Wolverine' reacting to Betty's existence as a 'Hulk'? "She might not have an unhealthy obsession with anyone in the manor, but we don't know what she wants either." The smol clone of Wolverine declared with a glare and I thought about the pros and cons of telling them about what Betty wanted before deciding what to do.
"You don't have to worry." In the end there wasn't anything to lose by telling them about it. "Betty wants to save a few people who... didn't make it to the future. There is no loss to us from that." I said and saw Jean's eyes soften. Despite the sheer amount of power her potential held, she was rather naive and optimistic individual; still the hero that she was before all the bullshit that happened in the comics. Laura on the other hand just narrowed her eyes, guess she wasn't as easy to sway as Jean.
"Enough gloomy topics." I decided to clap my hands and then clapped one of them on Jean's shoulder. "I am quite interested in what you and the rest of our valiant heroes have been doing while we were gone. Surely you guys must have had something equally exciting as what we did."
"Not as exciting." Jean shook her head mirthfully before smiling at me. "But thanks to you guys taking mister Logan with you, we get to have a free period instead of boot camp!"
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