All of that 'walk into the light' stuff when you have a near-death experience is untrue. It was for me at least. It was more like I just went to sleep, then woke up.
I hadn't been in the infirmary for a while, so when I woke up, I was less than pleased to see the room that I'd first woken up in when I'd originally arrived at Xavier's. There was a trend beginning here. One that I didn't particularly like.
"Fuck," Was the first waking word out of my mouth, "I'm thirsty."
"Ohhhhh, look who's not dead."
I turned my head to the side and saw Eddie sitting in a chair, messing around on a portable device. As my vision focused, I noticed that it was my PS Vita.
"Why do you have that? You'd have had to go into my room to get it," I asked, feeling selfish for a moment. The feeling quickly passed. If he was able to get it away from Saberwolf and keep all of his limbs, he could play it for a while.
Eddie looked up from the game I assumed he was playing to give me a smug look, "Well, you were out for a whole day. I just figured if you died, you'd want me to have something special to remember you by."
It was a joke. One he needed to tell and get my reaction from to establish if I was really okay.
"You're a real bro, Wing," I said sarcastically as I slowly started to sit up. I didn't feel any pain, or even a scar from my injury, "Remind me to thank Elixir later, or at least tell the New Mutants to."
"I thought you were out the whole time. How'd you know Josh patched you up?"
Under the covers, I pulled my hospital gown up to check myself out more closely, "I got my guts cut out, and none of the X-Men were home at the time," I said dryly, "I'm figuring someone dropped me in front of him before I flatlined for too long."
"Yup," Eddie set the Vita aside and sighed, taking a moment before addressing the obvious elephant in the room, "You seriously almost bit it this time, man. But Dr. McCoy said you would be okay after some sleep. Something about your powers and how you use your stored energy to regenerate or something. I was only able to make out so much about what he was saying."
He seemed really affected by my nearly dying. I just wanted to get out of the infirmary, "Cool. Let's get the hell out of here," I couldn't be bothered to care.
I'm kind of an asshole when it comes to how other people react to things. If I'm not emotionally affected, I can't empathize. I'll ignore it if I can get away with it. It's not a very… heroic trait to be that detached from the immediate world around me, I admit.
Eddie couldn't believe how I responded, "Dude, you almost died. Don't you care?"
What did he want from me? To wake up panting, patting at myself to make sure I was still in one piece? "No, because I'm not dead, and as far as I can tell, I'm fine now. What do you want from me?" He looked at me like I was some kind of alien creature. No, I'm pretty sure I fought the alien.
"Do you have a death wish or something?" Eddie asked.
That was offensive. I loved life. After all, it was just getting interesting for me, "No. I like living, and I get scared when stuff tries to kill me. Same as anyone else, really."
Kind of. Most people didn't have things actively trying to end their lives. That aside, I still had a pretty solid point, in my opinion. Eddie did not agree, "No, not really. Because when things like this happen, and it's over, you don't seem to dwell too much on it."
"Survive and advance," I said in what I thought was a smooth manner, "It happened, it was bad. Now it's over, I'm still alive, and I can look back and figure out how to keep from messing up that way, so it'll never happen again."
Eddie scoffed and turned his chair away grumpily, "Whatever. Be that way then," He said before a devious grin formed on his face, "Whatever I have to say couldn't possibly be any worse than what everybody else is gonna say when they get in here."
Oh no. Eddie being miffed at me was one thing. He was a guy, and that meant I could deal with him easily enough. The girls were another matter. Hisako was tough to handle when I hadn't done anything to set her off. Ruth got very touchy when I was careless about my own well-being.
…And I didn't even want to think about the kind of hell I was going to catch from Miss Pryde. Yeesh. No thank you on that front.
I looked around the room for a closet or some kind of place for my belongings to go, "Where are my clothes? I've got to get out of here now."
Eddie shook his head, reveling a bit too much in my displeasure, "Heh, no," He said, the jerk, "Not a chance. There's no way I'm letting you try to budge until the girls get here. Miss Pryde's got some choice words for you. Pretty sure Armor does too."
A chill went down my spine. Hell is other people, "Dude, come on. I will deal with this later. Not five minutes after waking up. Please," I tried to negotiate.
"No can do," He pointed at his own eyes and gestured his head to me, "You're in the red now too, so you can't even kick my ass and get away," He crowed victoriously.
I tried to channel some light energy to my hand and felt almost empty. Nothing some time out in the sun couldn't fix in a day or so, but far too low to go around playing with. He was right. Well, partially right at least.
"I don't need my powers to kick your ass," I declared, fully prepared to prove this point and slug my way out of the infirmary, "Want to see?"
He seemed a bit apprehensive at first, until he stopped and took a good loom at me, "No, because I don't need to see you running bare-assed through the Institute."
I was black, yes, but still light-skinned enough to where I could actually blush, "Eddie, where are my goddamn clothes!?"
"Don't tell him anything, Wing!" Hisako said as she walked into the room with a frowning Ruth, "That moron is staying right there until Dr. McCoy clears him."
Betrayal! Eddie shrugged carelessly when I went to bring this up to him, "Hey, I texted everybody back when you started moving around. Then you woke up."
Fair enough. All I could do now was deal with it. I put the biggest, stupidest grin on my face that I could and threw my hands up into the air, "Girls! Show me some love!"
Hisako stared at me like I was some strange tentacle monster, and yes that was a Japan joke, "What are you doing? Put your arms down," She said.
I was being an idiot on purpose to try and disarm whatever spiel she'd been set to go on, "I want a hug. Aren't you happy that I'm alright?"
Damn Hisako. Still so cold to me, "Too damn bad. You can't get one," Fortunately, Ruth disregarded her altogether and leaned herself over my bed and me to wrap her arms around me, "Blindfold, get off of him! He's supposed to be in trouble!"
I hammed it up with a big sigh, rocking side-to-side, rubbing Ruth's back, "This is why you're my favorite," I stage whispered, letting her give me a good extra squeeze before she let go.
"She is happy that you survived," Ruth told me once she pulled away, and she honestly seemed overjoyed to say so, "Yes. She saw Ord before, but no, not for this. Something worse, yes."
Still sat off to the side, Eddie voiced his disbelief, "What? No way. Worse than Sol getting his guts cut out like a slaughterhouse pig?"
Ruth pulled away from me and gave Eddie the gravest look she could give with half of her facial features concealed, "Yes," Eddie pressed himself a bit farther into his chair, "Pardon, this was better. So much better. She is happy Bellamy is here with us. You should be too, Wing."
Wow. Ominous.
Whatever weirdness was brewing, I screwed it all up by throwing an arm around Ruth and pulling her to sit with me, "Well I'm happy I'm here. It's much better than being dead."
Ruth let out a sigh, as though we didn't understand what she was telling us, "No, she meant-… No, it doesn't matter. That future has changed, thank you."
Hisako walked over to me and put a hand on my shoulder, "Right. I'm not even mad anymore. It's just good to see you awake."
Aw. That was nice. I just smiled at her and nodded. I loved my team. Speaking of my team, two of them were missing. Namely our advisor and our newest member.
Since no one was going anywhere, we all got comfortable in my infirmary room, "Okay, I love you guys, but we're short a few Paladins here," I pointed out, "Where are Laura and Miss Pryde?"
"Well Laura was here. Not that long ago actually," Eddie told us, "She stood at the foot of your bed for a while, just looking at you. She was the one who buzzed me about you moving around, getting ready to wake up."
I didn't know whether to be happy that our socially challenged teammate had come to see me, or that she'd identified that I was waking up, then left, "And she just left without saying hi?" Eddie nodded, having been the only one present at the time, "Fine, okay. What about Miss Pryde then?"
This time Hisako answered me, "Oh. Her boyfriend came back," She said, as though such a thing wasn't surprising. It clearly showed on my face, "…We didn't know she had one either. She never told us about him."
None of this was helpful to me, or my all-important ego, "Okay, I'm confused. What makes that more important than this? And yes, I'm aware that makes me sound like an asshole. I don't care," Just to make things clear, in case my friends forgot who they were dealing with.
A soft knock came at my open door, alerting us all that Dr. McCoy had come to see me, "Because until last night, our dear friend Peter was believed to be dead," He said, having overheard us before greeting us, "Hello, children."
All of us looked at each other before Hisako said the first thing that came to mind, "…So is this one of those things that we can't know about?" It just so happened that her first thought was the one that I assumed Eddie was also thinking. I assumed as much because it was what I had been thinking.
Dr. McCoy shook his head and chuckled as he walked over to me, looking down at his clipboard, "Seeing as how the individual responsible for bringing him back from the dead attempted to kill your squad leader, I would say you should," He said before looking up at me with a gentle smile. Dr. McCoy was a cool guy, "Now, where to begin?"
I was eager to learn. Learn about the guy that turned me inside out, "You can start with telling me who that big mothertrucker who ran me over was, if you don't mind."
Dr. McCoy was always happy to explain things to someone who would listen. Now he had four someones, "Certainly. His name is Ord, a 'diplomat' of the Breakworld. He's not exactly the most pleasant fellow, is he? Arm, please," He asked, holding up a syringe.
I knew most that stuff already though. He had identified himself while he had been in the middle of trying to end my life. Also, he had been a dick while trying to end my life, "Okay, what kind of beef does he have with you? He wanted me to send the X-Men a message. Then he cut my guts out."
That statement, along with the added sight of Dr. McCoy drawing some of my blood made Hisako a tad queasy, "Do you have to put it that way?" She said. I hadn't asked, but at least one of my team members had to have seen what I'd looked like before Elixir put me back together, "Ugh, I don't want to think about that."
Maybe gore just didn't bother me so much when it was mine, "It's exactly what happened. There isn't exactly a way to sugarcoat getting eviscerated," I said, rubbing my arm where the needle had gone in, "What else can you tell us, Doctor?"
"A government agency worked with Ord to switch the body of a friend of ours who died saving the world. This was done as a bargain between the agency and Ord to keep Breakworld from declaring war on Earth. In exchange for peace, Ord would have the chance to use his body to come up with a way to cure mutants. If you've been watching the news, they've done it. Namely, Dr. Rao did."
Hisako started putting things together, "This guy is a diplomat, so he has immunity like the bad guy in Lethal Weapon 2, right? So if Bel was actually good enough to kill that guy-."
I took that moment to interject, "I wouldn't have killed him. I mean, I wouldn't have then. I might now," And I felt right in feeling that way.
Hisako lightly paintbrushed me over the head a few times to get me to be quiet. She didn't even look my way. It wound up starting a ten second slapfight, "-If Bel was good enough to kill that guy, he would have started an intergalactic war," Dr. McCoy gave a weird wiggle of his hand, as if to say that she was mostly on-base, "That is nuts. How do you get into these things?"
That was not the biggest thing Eddie took away from what we'd heard, "Fuck that! That guy is the reason that scientist lady came up with 'Hope'?" He asked, bewildered that things about the mutant cure could get even worse, "What if he attacks the mansion and uses that stuff on us?"
I held up my hand, still getting a very weak glow from the lack of juice flowing through my body. Still, there was enough to make a point, "Then I'll shoot him in the face. Did I not say this to you the other day?"
My braggadocio would have been a lot more effective on Eddie, had I not been running my mouth from a hospital bed, "Oh, yeah. Because that worked so well for you the first time. Right now, you're weaker than I've ever seen you. You're not fighting anybody like that."
His snark was not appreciated. Nor was his reminder of my near-fatal defeat.
Dr. McCoy stood between us before we could go head-to-head, "It won't take long for you to rebuild your energy," He said to me, "I need to look into your physiology more, but it seems that when you suffer serious, life-threatening injuries your body shuts down and uses whatever you have stored up to heal you."
I sat there and grumbled, "Well that sucks. So I have to sleep to get super-fast healing?" And I could only sleep for certain after getting the piss beaten out of me. Thanks, powers, "Forget that for now. What is this all about?"
Sugarcoating our potential demise was not something Dr. McCoy was in the business of. He'd been through it enough that it was kind of passe for him, "A mutant will destroy Breakworld. It's been predetermined, allegedly. Only, no one knows who it will be, so Ord, ambitious individual as he is, decided he would wipe out all of mutantkind just to be safe."
Oh. Well alright then. All of us just looked at each other, without saying a word. No one really knew how to respond to that, and the good doctor recognized that.
"Yes, everyone reacts that way the first time they're involved in something like this," Dr. McCoy nonchalantly said. He set his clipboard aside and started unhook me from some of the machines I was on, "Regardless, you should be fine to return to the student dormitories. I'll run bloodwork for you to make sure there are no anomalies, but other than that, I'm releasing you from my care. Go forth, brave young Solaris!" He concluded with theateresque pomp.
"Cool!" I almost went to jump out of the bed until I remembered my hospital gown problem, "Okay, someone get me some pants!"
Just as long as I could put all of that crap behind me. Almost dying once was the limit for me in any given situation. I had done my due superhero-trainee diligence.