It was a quiet day at the institute, classes haven't been a thing for a long time. Ian was still sleeping in his bed. It had been a few months since he had the chance to sleep comfortably, and he wasn't going to waste a single moment of it. Meanwhile he had a visitor sitting in a chair right beside his window, watching over him protectively.
It was Laura, who at some point had snuck into Ian's room to make sure he was still there, to make sure he was safe. Or that's what she told herself, when really, she just didn't want him to leave again.
" ughh, Pizza-cake waffle." Ian groaned. He was dreaming about his favorite foods. Laura took note of how peaceful he seemed. But then he began to stir. The moment his eyes started to flutter open Laura escaped through the window, so she wouldn't be caught. " Huh?" Ian groaned. He rubbed his eyes and looked around the room. " Coulda swore I saw Laura... Oh well. I'm sure I was just dreaming." Ian laid back down and closed his eyes again.
.....
Later.
After having had his fill of Sleep, Ian was brought down to the danger room by Hank McCoy to test out his new powers.
" Alright, are you sure about this Hank?" Ian asked the man.
" Absolutely. Need I remind you mister Sinclair, that this room was built to withstand a nuclear explosion. You have absolutely nothing to worry about. Now, go on and give it all you've got. It's the only way we can get a proper reading on your powers now." Hank explained to the young man.
" Alright, Hank. But remember you asked for it." Ian told the man.
Ian raised his hands up and began charging power into them, meanwhile from above in the observation deck Laura was watching Hank and Ian conduct their experiments.
" Tell me something. Is that genuine emotion?" Emma asked the young girl as she walked into the room. " Or just something your masters programmed into you?"
" Get out of my mind!" Laura demanded.
" I'm not in it. I don't have to be." Emma told the girl. " You've been following Ian all around like a puppy all day."
" Please stop." Laura asked the woman.
" You think I hate you, but I don't." Emma told the girl. " In many ways we are the same. I too, have done horrible things in my life. I've hurt good people. Destroyed minds. Killed those I once loved... My own sister. I understand evil and death, just as you do." Emma explained to the girl.
Laura was feeling angry and clenched her fists together hard but kept it too herself.
" But the difference between us is that my actions were by my own choice. You don't have a choice. With a single drop of that chemical... That trigger... You lose control to your masters and kill whoever they choose. Does he know that about you? Have you even told him where you come from yet? Don't you think he deserves to know that?" Emma asked. " If you care for him then you will leave him. Leave this school now, before it's too late."
Laura looked down at her hands. Everything Frost had said rang clearly in her mind and while she hated it. She in some ways agreed.
" How can you say that?!" Cessily, who had overheard the conversation, asked as she came into the room.
" Cessily..." Emma spoke.
" No! You abandon Kevin, you humiliate Julian, and now you want Laura to leave?! What is the matter with you?! She nearly died saving our lives... She would have, if not for Julian! This is how you treat her?" Cessily was more than upset with Emma, she was furious. In the few months Ian was gone, Laura had really stepped up and saved the New X-men's lives many times. And for that Cessily, owed the girl. She trusted her.
" There are things you don't know, Cessily... I'm doing this to protect you." Emma told the girl.
" I don't care!" Cessily yelled. She and Laura both turned to leave the room.
" I've found out more than enough about how you protect your students miss Frost." Cessily told the woman, she then walked out after Laura and slammed the door behind her, leaving Emma alone.
" Damn it." Emma cursed.
* BOOM!
The danger room below exploded, and Emma was tossed to the ground.
" DAMN IT!" Emma cursed again. " What are you two doing down there?" Emma asked.
" What?! He told me to let loose!" Ian yelled up to the woman. He had followed hanks directions and used his full might to blast the target and in doing so shook the mansion.
" To be fair, I didn't quite expect such an explosive yield." Hank stated.
" You two are idiots." Emma huffed. She then walked out of the danger room deck while the two men started cleaning up the damage done.
Meanwhile, Cessily chased after Laura. She was still worried about the girl.
" Move." Laura demanded. She was in a hurry to go somewhere and had just rushed right through Loa and Hope.
" Laura, will you wait up?!" Cessily yelled after the girl. When she saw that Laura wasn't going to stop, she used her powers to stretch out and stand in front of the girl. " Stop! Look.... I heard how horrible miss Frost was, but you have to know that we don't want you to leave..." Cessily told the girl.
" It doesn't matter. She's right." Laura told the girl.
" No, she's not! All those things she said... I didn't mean to overhear; I was just coming to check on... She said.... She was saying that... Ohmigod! You like Ian!" Cessily exclaimed.
" I do not wish to talk about this." Laura told the girl.
" You! Oh, Laura... We should... We should, I don't know, talk. We need to talk." Cessily told the girl.
" Please, move." Laura asked the girl again, but Cessily wouldn't take no for an answer.
" Le'ts go get a coffee! In town! Seriously, this will be so good." Cessily exclaimed happily.
Having overheard the girl yelling Santo walked over to the two.
" Whoa, can we do that now? I thought we couldn't leave! Is that new?" Santo asked the girl. " Can I go, too!" Santo asked.
" No!" Cessily replied harshly. " Come on, Laura!" Cessily yelled. She grabbed the girl's arm and pulled her along the way.
" Aww, hulk sad." Santo groaned.
" Awww, man that blows." Ian groaned. He came walking out of the sub-levels with his shirt off, because it was blown up in the lab.
" Yo, Ian. Want to go do something man?" Santo asked.
" Nah, I'm gonna hit the showers and then see if can speak to Laura. We didn't really do much talking last night." Ian told the boy.
" Oh, well. You just missed her." Santo spoke up.
" Yeah? She go somewhere?" Ian asked.
" Yeah, she went into town with Cessily." Santo told the man.
" REALLY?!" Ian asked. He was excited for Laura to finally be hanging out with the other girls.
" Yeah, man. They went to get coffee or something." Santo stated.
" Alright, well, since I'm free wanna watch some wrestling?" Ian asked.
" Yeah man. But... Hit that shower first." Santo told the man.
Ian looked at Santo sideways and then smelled his arm pits and cringed.
" Oh! Friendly fire. Yeah, I'll be right back." Ian told the boy. He then went upstairs to take a shower.
Meanwhile in Town, Cessily and Laura were finally sitting down to talk, much to Laura's resistance.
" Thanks Luna." Cessily told the woman.
" Why do you order a drink? You do not need to eat or to drink." Laura asked the woman.
" How do you now?" Cessily asked. " It doesn't matter. I just like to hold it. Makes me feel human. Makes people feel more comfortable around me. It may not seem like it, but I'm one of the least human students here." Cessily explained.
" None of us are human." Laura stated.
" I know... But I like to look human. Do human things. Julian knows that... And I guess now you do too. But we don't know anything about you. You don't talk much." Cessily spoke. She looked to Laura for some kind of response but the girl remined silent. " Right. Well, I guess we know that you could kill us all if you wanted to. That's what Logan said, but you saved my life. Sure, you had to cut my hands off to do it, but I was trying to lose a few pounds anyway." Cessily explained. " I just wanted to thank you."
" You're welcome." Laura replied. Below the table she popped one of her claws.
" Do you like, Ian?" Cessily asked.
" Yes, he has been good to me." Laura replied. " He's... a good friend." Laura explained.
" No, I mean do you like him, like him?" Cessily asked again.
" Like him, like him?" Laura asked.
" Do you have a crush on him?" Cessily stated more bluntly.
" I do not wish to talk about this." Laura told the girl. Below the table Laura had used her claw to cut an X into her arm and drew blood.
" Laura, it's okay if you do. I understand. Believe me, I do. I know how it is to like someone who doesn't necessarily like you back. I've had that happen to me two times now." Cessily told the girl.
" No, I-" Laura started. She then caught a familiar scent on the wind and jumped to her feet.
" Laura?" Cessily spoke.
" Get out." Laura told the girl.
" What? Laura, I didn't mean to upset you. I was just-" Cessily tried telling the girl. But it wasn't because she was upset that Laura told her to run.
" GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!" Laura ordered the girl. She grabbed her from her seat and shoved her towards the door. " ALL OF YOU RUN!" Laura yelled to the other patrons in the store.
" Laura, what's wrong?!" Cessily asked.
" You have to go! They're not here for you. They're here for me. They're here to take me ba-" Before Laura could finish her sentence the entire grindstone restaurant exploded in a ball of fire.
Cessily and Laura managed to survive the explosion thanks to their mutations, but the same could not be said for everyone else in the coffee shop.
" Uhhh... Laura... Oh God... What happened?" Cessily asked. " Laura?" Cessily called out to the girl, but she couldn't answer. She was too busy trying to defend herself from their captors, and she was doing a good job, killing one of the men with her foot talon before he noticed her.
" Get out of here, Cessily! RUN!" Laura told the girl.
" Take her out!" One of the armed men yelled to the others. He tried to shoot Laura, but Cessily stopped him.
" No!" Cessily yelled. " We need to get out of here!" Cessily told Laura. " We have to get back to the institute!"
" Get out of here" Laura yelled again.
" What?! I'm going to just leave you here!" Cessily told the girl.
Laura looked back at the girl and in that moment, she was bombarded by a hail of cross bow bolts.
" Laura!" Cessily yelled. She caught Laura in her arms and lowered the girl to the ground.
" Well, look at this... Out for a little girl-talk?" A familiar voice asked Laura. " Hi, X. Miss me?" Kimura asked the girl.
" Run, Cessily." Laura told the girl again. " She has nothing to do with this, Kimura" Laura told the huntress.
" Where did you learn such nobility?" Kimura asked playfully. " I don't remember you taking that class at the facility. But arrogance was always your problem, wasn't it, clone?" Kimura asked the young girl. " We didn't come for you." Kimura told Laura. She then fired an electric Crossbow bolt right into Cessily's chest.
" Ahhh!" Cessily cried out in pain.
" Cessily!" Laura shouted. She tried to help the girl but was shot in the throat by Kimura.
" Get Kincaid and load her into the containment unit. I'll handle the clone." Kimura told her troops.
" You're dead." One of the facility soldiers told Laura. He raised his gun to her head but before he could pull the trigger, Laura slit his throat and took his gun. She then pointed it at the soldiers around Cessily and opened fire, killing a few of them before Kimura stepped in her way again.
" Stop screwing around! I said get the girl in the van!" Kimura ordered.
Laura dropped the gun and lunged at Kimura with her claws. But the woman caught her and threw her down on her stomach. Laura rolled over and tried to slash Kimura across the chest, but her skin was invulnerable which meant that her claws were useless against Kimura, or that's what Kimura thought.
" Oh, come on! How many times have you tried that before?" Kimura asked Laura as she cut her across the chest, to no effect. " You're going to have to do better than that."
" So are you." Laura replied. She showed Kimura her claws and Kimura saw that the pins to her grenades had been snatched off.
" You little--" Before she could finish speaking, Kimura and Laura both were caught in the explosion. " Uhhh, I hate you clone." Kimura told Laura. She hadn't been hurt by the blast, but her clothes had been ruined.
" Kimura! We're green!" One of the men yelled to Kimura.
Kimura was ready to continue fighting Laura when a call came in from her superior, Harkin.
" Kimura, do you have Kincaid?" Harkins asked.
" She's on board... I'm dealing with X-23." Kimura told the man.
" Forget her. We need Kincaid now1" Harkins told the woman.
Kimura grit her teeth and withdrew from the fight. Hopping onto the transport truck just as it began to pull away.
" Kimura!" Laura yelled.
" Another time, X. See you soon!" Kimura yelled to the girl and waved goodbye.
" KIMURA!!!!" Laura yelled in absolute rage at the woman. She turned and ran her way back to the institute as fast as she could.
....
A little later, Ian and a few others were gathered in the Tv room watching tv together. They were watching a tv news report about the superhuman registration act, and the young avengers were listed as being missing fugitives.
" The young Avengers? Who are they?" Santo asked.
" Are you serious?" Alani asked.
" Hey, I'm just now hearing about these guys too. Don't feel bad Santo." Ian spoke up.
" Have you both been living under a rock?" Alani asked.
" Well, I can't speak for myself, but Santo is a rock. So, does that count?" Ian asked the girl. He was joking of course, and Alani only responded by rolling her eyes. Ian laughed and then took a look at the time. " Hey, has Cessily or Laura come back yet?" Ian asked.
" Don't know, I've been with you all day man." Santo replied.
" Well, that's not what I asked, was it Santo?" Ian asked the boy. " I'm gonna see if they're back yet. I can't wait to hear how Laura's day was." Ian spoke. He got up from his seat and walked out of the room, just as Julian was about to enter.
" Yo, what's up man?" Julian asked.
" Not much, I'll see you later man." Ian told the boy. Ian walked past Julian and headed up the stairs to Laura's room. He wanted to see if they had come back. He was excited for Laura to finally be hanging out with the other girls and he couldn't wait to drill her on how things went.
He walked up to the girl's room and knocked before entering.
" Hey, Laura, Is Cessily here too? How was your da-" Before he finished speaking, he spotted Laura covered in blood. " Laura! What happened to you?" Ian asked the girl. " Where's Cessily?"
" She's gone." Laura replied. Laura grabbed a small duffle bag and wrapped it around her shoulder. " But I'll get her back."
" Stop! What are you talking about?!" Ian asked. He was beginning to grow madder and madder with each passing second. " Get her back? Where is she?!" Ian demanded to know.
" They took her. The ones who made me, took her." Laura explained. " And the longer you stand here, the harder it'll be for me to track her." Laura told the boy.
" I'm coming with you." Ian told the girl.
" No." Laura replied bluntly.
Ian's turned red. He grabbed Laura and exploded through the roof of the institute, carrying her with him, crashing right through the defensive lines the O.N.E.S Sentinels had set up at high speeds.
" I'm going with you, Understand?" Ian told the girl. His tone made it clear for Laura that he wasn't asking her but telling her.
Laura looked up into his green eyes and nodded.
" Yes." Laura replied.
" Good!" Ian spoke. ' Hang on, Cess. We're coming!'