We spent the night resting at Magneto's villa. I had so many questions, for him and for Professor Xavier. I probably got annoying at some point, but if I did, they didn't show it. Even so, it was a chance to talk to two of the most influential mutant leaders ever. What was my green ass going to do, not pick their brains?
When morning rolled around, I decided that it was likely better not to leave Quire alone unsupervised for too long and went to find him. Hisako and I stopped at an overlook with a view of what probably at one time had been a beautiful city. Now it was a decrepit grave for millions.
"Merry Christmas," She said sardonically at the sight.
"It's not Christmas yet," I reminded her, holding up a trio of fingers, "I've still got three days to get you home."
She didn't seem to share in my optimism, "Do you really think we're even going to get out of here by Christmas, let alone get either of us home by then?"
"Why not?" I asked, "We found Magneto. Now we just have to find Quire again, point him in the right direction, and whatever happens after that really isn't our problem."
"Even if he does something really stupid?" Hisako wondered.
There was no question Quire was going to do something stupid. The only question was if it was going to be something that would affect us, "If he's by himself, I really doubt he can do anything to Professor Xavier and Magneto without getting his ass kicked."
Of course, I said this before I really got to know who Quentin Quire was. Up to that point, I only knew him as the annoying voice in my head, then as the stupidly overpowered idiot that was supposed to be a genius. For someone who was so goddamn smart, I can't remember anything that would have ever lent that label credence.
He really wasn't that smart. He was pretty predictable, actually. Think of the worst decision most likely to provoke conflict a person could make in any given situation. That was how Quire always operated. He had never and would never be responsible for a decision that didn't wind up making something worse, not only for the people around him but even for himself; even when EVERYONE could see exactly how it was going to go.
This was a lesson that had to be learned though, and I hadn't quite yet. The first time I had to deal with his b.s. was when I later came across him with what amounted to a group of mutant bushwhackers at his back.
"Wow," I said when we managed to find him again, "You made friends? That's impressive. I'm proud of you."
Instead of Quire saying anything, a pretty jacked guy in a tight red top with black trousers and boots stepped up. He swept his short black hair back and looked Hisako and I over, "These the ones?" He asked.
Quire sneered at us before replying, "Yeah, these are the ones. Xavier's disciples," He said with a smirk.
"Should have figured," The man said, "They look like goody-two-shoes."
Hisako leaned over and whispered to me, "I mean, I do. Not so sure about you."
That was not the part of their conversation that I concerned myself with, "Disciples?" I responded, "I met the man less than sixteen hours ago."
"Doesn't matter!" The man snapped, "There's two sides on this island. My side, and everyone else. You either ride with Unus the Untouchable, or you're expendable."
It was clearly meant to be a threat, but he had come along far too late in my superhero education to put me on edge just because he had hostile intentions, "I mean, I already considered myself expendable," I said to Hisako, "I don't really think being on this guy's side would make me feel any different about that."
Hisako let out a sigh, "I wish you wouldn't make jokes like that..."
"I could make fun of his name, but that just seems like low-hanging fruit to me."
"HEY!" Unus, tired of Hisako and I conversing amongst ourselves, took it upon himself to pull out a gun. On reflex, I raised my fist and fired a concussive blast that would have hit him dead center in the chest, but it broke apart and dispersed about a foot in front of him, "Heh-heh..."
He took aim at me and fired, but Hisako moved directly in front of me and armored up. The bullets bounced harmlessly off of her.
Unus was momentarily taken aback before he started blustering anew, "Yeah! What are you gonna do now? You can't lay a finger on me! I'm Unus the Untouchable!"
Sure, I couldn't really hurt him. But did I really have to? My teammate, who was standing right next to me, who I trained with almost every day, used a kind of force field. That meant I knew exactly how to fight people who used them. Instead of responding with words or another direct attack, I lasered off the portion of the cliff he was on.
He just stared at me like I was an idiot until a sliver of landmass slid off into the ocean, with him riding it all the way down.
"FUUUUCK!" Unus shouted until a mighty splash silenced him.
If his force field was as legit as Hisako's armor was, a fall like that wouldn't have killed him. And if he could swim, he'd be fine. But the important thing was that he wouldn't be a problem again until he could climb his ass back up. That was one issue dealt with, and seemingly effective in getting the rest of Quire's entourage to back off.
Good. I really wasn't in any mood to fight to begin with.
Quire didn't seem to read my body language though. He stepped forward as though he would take me on himself, "If you want something done right..." He muttered.
I cut that off at the pass, "The dude you're looking for is that-a-way," I quickly pointed him in the right direction.
Telling him that I'd found Magneto seemed to have taken the wind out of his sails, "W-What? Really?"
"Yeah. Told us as much himself," I said, gesturing for him to follow us, "Put your whole mutant rebel gimmick on hold for like five minutes and we can take you to him now."
While the mental image of seeing Quire turn to his new followers and tell them he had to go now like a kid being picked up from the park like his parents was hilarious to me, I didn't expect him to actually do it. Even when he was poised to get what he was after, the guy was incapable of playing ball to do so properly.
Taking advantage of what I had told him, Quire started laughing as he addressed his audience, "Magneto lives! The almighty leader of Genosha! The man that failed to protect this country – to protect all of you! And now he's hiding in the rubble like a coward!"
Much like Hisako, I'd had my reservations as to what Quire wanted with Magneto. Worst-case scenario, he wanted to restart the Brotherhood and was willing to use us to get his initiation. This, however, was far stupider than even I thought I'd see.
"Dude, did you seriously make me drag you all this way so you could pick a fight with Magneto?" I asked, seeing where this was going, "...You know what? More power to you. Have a ball with that. I'll go get him."
Hisako was quick to admonish me, "Sol!" I didn't stop and she ran off to catch up with me, "Hey, are you seriously going to give him what he wants?"
"No-no-no. It's fine. Let him do it," I tried to reassure her, "Let him try to solo the guy that entire X-Men teams need to work together take down."
Hisako looked back and Quire and then to me a few times before she realized what I was getting at. When she did, she covered her resulting grin with her hand.
We had been training on simulations in the Danger Cave since our generation of X-Men had been established. Hell, we'd been doing it as Paladins back when the Danger Room still worked. The point was, we had done plenty of sims against prime Magneto a lot. It never went well, no matter what the lineup was. Even when we recently started winning, they were Pyrrhic victories at best as far as I was concerned.
Quire didn't train. Quire didn't do drills. Quire didn't do anything. He had been in one real fight that I was aware of, and even high off his ass on Kick, he got his shit pushed in by the Cuckoos. Raw power wasn't everything. If he thought he could take Magneto just because he was a strong telepath, I was going to back up a safe distance, grab a snack, and enjoy the show.
Watching Quire get the taste slapped out of his mouth by Magneto live and in living color was the best Christmas gift I could have reasonably been given.