X-Men Chapter 4 Aftermath

[Foley]

It would have been better if it had been raining.

That was the absurd thought that floated through the back of Cerebro's mind as he stood off to the side of the large crowd of friends and current and former teammates who had gathered together to watch as Nightcrawler preformed the acts necessary to inturn their lost comrade-in-arms Simian into his final resting place on the grounds of the Xavier Estate in Westchester County. If it had been raining then at least it would be fit the mood that washed over all of them and also hid all the tears that flowed freely from all there. Even Wolverine lowered his gruff, cranky exterior once Kurt began his sermon.

But it was not raining. Instead it was a bright, warm and sunny summers day. The kind that would be perfect for a reunion or a picnic, not a funeral. From where he stood, Cerebro was able to look out over the group without being really notice. Juggernaut and Firestar stood closest to the coffin with Wolverine close behind as was Winddancer, who was once romanticly linked to Simian. Simian's parents were seated under a tent beside the pulpit from which Nightcrawler now lead the mourners in recenting the Our Father. His mother was like any mother who just lost a child, weeping openly and uncontrolably, while his father was sitting ramrod straight with an odd mix of pride and pain in his expression. His and Cerebro's eyes looked for a moment and the telepath did not need to read the man's mind to know just how angry he was at the lose of his son. And yet Simian's father did not seem to blame the X-Men for his son untimely end. Even when Cerebro expressed how deeply sorry he was for issueing the orders that lead to it, his father simply patted Cerebro on the shoulder and said that Simian died doing his duty like the man he was raised to be and if he would not blame Cerebro how could his father.

After breaking eye contact with the older man, Cerebro saw someone he dreaded seeing. Behind a pair of ruby colored sunglasses, Scott Summers stood staring a hole into his former protoge. From the dour continence, Cerebro knew he would be getting a very bad headache before the sun set.

[Fire Star]

Robin dressed in all black kept her head down, staring at the grass. Afraid to make eye contact. And to speak. Not even to Cerebro. The cries of the crowd sounded like nails on a chalk board. Their tears pierced her heart like glass.
If it wasn't for her trying to leave and abandon the team, he would still be flipping around. She wanted to be in the house or back in her room. Anywhere but here. But she was pushed to go. No one would listen to her please to stay. They just assumed she had to go.
Standing in the front next to claws, she had no choice but to attend the funeral that she had created.

[Foley]

Pointedly, Cerebro did not go over to where Cyclops was standing at the edge of the gathering as everyone began to break up and head up to the Mansion proper to take part in the time honored ritual of discussing the fond memories they each had of Simian. Instead he made his was towards Juggernaut, Wolverine and Firestar.

"Gentlemen," Cerebro said looking at the two men, "Could you excuse Firestar and myself for a moment?"

"Why," Juggernaut asked bluntly.

"So I can have a word with her in private," Cerebro said putting a slight edge to his voice to counter the mysticly powered unstoppable man's stubborness. It was Wolverine that came to the rescue by suggesting that the two of them go get a couple of sixpacks.

Cerebro waited until they were both out of earshot before turning back to Firestar, "How ya doing?" he asked simply.

[Fire Star]

"Your the telepathy you tell me. I figure you've already been roaming around up there. Look I screwed up ok! I let someone talk me into doubting the team. I was leaving when he jumped in-front of ugly, saving me. End if story. My ass should be in there not his," She said pointing to the casket.

[Foley]

So much for this being the easiest part of my day, Cerebro thought to himself. Then out loud, "First off, just because I am a telepath does not me I just go 'roaming around up there' anytime I feel like it. Second, if anyone screwed up royally here it was me for sending you in to a battle situation on only your second day here with us. I did figure since Groundpounder's little tirade brought you into the situation that you would be insistant on seeing this out to the end. It was that sparky nature, if you will pardon the pun on you powers, that lead me to bring you into the X-Men in the first place.

"As for your preformance on this mission...it was perfectly natural for someone who had never been in anything like that before. My first combat experience saw me revisiting what I had had for lunch that day I was so nervous. And yes, you are going to doubt a team of people you just met, trust is a time consuming thing to build. As far as whose ass is supposed to be in that casket...nobody's. Yes, I'm very upset that I lost someone under my command the other night but no, I am not blaiming you or Simian or even Mondo, who actually murdered him. I knew Simian. He was dedicated to the ideals we stand for when we put on the uniform with the great big 'x' on it and sadly part of those ideals is the sometimes need to give one's life for the greater good and I can think of no greater good the saving lives or even just one life."

Cerebro stood there a moment to let his words gently spoken sink in. He smiled warmly again and asked, "So, without the snarkiness this time, how you doing?"

[Fire Star]

Robin looked around at the slowly dissipated crowd. And to their sad faces. "Like they look, but worse. He made me feel silly, and dizzy watching him flip and flip and flip. I just wanted to yell, would he just walk! But he also made me feel welcomed. It was as if we'd known each other for years." She stopped to watch the coffin being lowered. Giving her some comfort in the silence.

Closing her fingers down over her palm made her hand glow red. As she opened her hand a small bird made of fire flew high over head. The more it rose the lager it got,until it was the size of a small plane. It circled the mansion to come back to the graveyard, where it fizzled out right above the newly occupied grave.

"So what do we do now?"

[Foley]

"That depends." Cerebro answered, "If you wish, you can leave the base with no hard feelings. Or you can simply stay and receive training on just how to control your powers so you don't repeat the accident that sent you out on the road in the first place, the road that lead you here. Or there is one last option that I personally think you should choose. Stay as an X-Man."

The team leader took a long, almost ragged breath, then added, "Whatever you decide there is one thing you need to remember, Life is for living, no matter what you do or what tragedy comes your way, " He nodded to the gravesight, "You forget that and you severly dishonor Simian's memory."

He started to walk off, "If you choose that last option, be in the training room oh-nine-hundred hours Monday morning."

Cerebro left him to her thoughts and made his way to his office. Seeing Cyclops sitting in the seat in front of his desk reserved for guests did very little to surprise him. He knew that Cyclops was going to have his say no matter what.

Sitting behind his desk, Cerebro steepled his fingers and looked directly into the ruby sunglasses of the ultimate leader of the X-Men Program. "Would you like some tea?" he asked in mock kind tones.

[dc]

As he opened his upteenth bottle of beer, Wolverine looked over at his drunken colleauge. "Whatcha thinkin' about bub?" He asked in a slurred manor.

Juggernaut looked back at him smiled and said, "I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!" and passed out.

[Fire Star]

Robin walked back to her room that Simian had shown her not so long ago. Their was not question as to her choice. She knew it just as soon as Cerebro asked it. Here she could stop running ,and settle down with people who wouldn't call her a freak. Maybe even make a friend or two.
But for right now she was content to sit and stare out the window.

[Foley]

A sudden cloud of thick clinging smoke, the stench of brimstone and the bamf sound of air rushing to fill in a space all heralded the arrival of Nightcrawler in the room where Woverine and Juggernaut had started their bender. Kurt Wagner looked down at the passed out Cain Marko then back to Wolverine, "Wonderful company you keep these days, mein friend."

With a slight movement of his legs, Kurt propeled himself upwards so he could grasp the edge of Logan's very old, very used cot and balance comfortably, "I had heard Cyclops going on a tirade about Cerebro allowing Juggernaut to join his team, and the one that followed when Scott learned that Cerebro had been quietly housing Herr Professor's brother here for months was even worse."

Kurt leaned forward and looked Wolverine in the eye, "But I am not here to discuss your drinking partners or Cerebro's leadership. I thought it be best if an old friend inquired as to how you are handling Simian's death. I know he was one of your recruits."

[Foley]

"Do you intend to make light of recent events?" Cyclops asked, the sound of his teeth grinding together could almost be heard.

"The depends on if you intend to undermine my authority in regards to my team." replied Cerebro, speaking in calm but case hardened metal tones. He was prepared for Cyclops ever since his team left Mexico.

"You entered another country without proper authorization..."

Cerebro raised a hand to cut Cyclops off, "I was under the understanding that we had open access to most of the member governments of the UN,"

"There are still proper proceedures that need to be followed in such a case!" snapped Cyclops, "And lets not forget that while you set out to bring down Mr Sinister you failed to come back with him in custody or the fact that you've not only had Cain Marko in custody but released him and allowed him to act as a member of your team without clearing it with anyone!"

"My arrangement with Juggernaut was my affair." Cerebro replied simply, "He turned himself in here at my branch's headquarters, asking only that he be allowed to stay in his cell in peace. Once I learned that he had knowledge that dealt with a case that we were working on. One that I remind you that you were pressuring me to resolve since it could trigger a anti-mutant wave, I made a deal with him. The terms of that deal was that in exchange for remaining in our custody as he wanted he would earn his keep by placing himself at my disposal. As for not telling you...since when have you ever shared everything with all the branchs or the UN oversight committee?"

Cyclops seemed a bit mollified as he asked, "What do you mean?"

"As I recall, it was the team under your command that last had a run in with Soul."

Cyclops's face seem to drain of a small amount of color confirming Cerebro's harbored suspicions. "That was a very long time ago," the long time X-Man said carefully.

"Yes, before Xavier's retirement and move to Washington D.C. and the founding of the coast to coast teams." Cerebro said pressing forward, "I was working with the Gold team on a mission in the Outback when you encountered Soul. I remember you telling me about once we returned and I remember you telling me that Soul died in the battle and that there was nothing you could have done to prevent that."

"What does that have to do with this or Simian's death?"

"It deals with something I left out of the report I submitted. I ran into to Soul just before fighting my clone."

"It could've been a clone of him,"

"Nice logic but no. It was Soul and you lied to me." Cerebro said his voice now ice. "Why doesn't matter. All that matters is you have no business calling me to the carpet on things I choose not the share with you in Worchester or Bishop in Washington or the UN. As far as Simian, I mourn the loss of my friend but someone I used to admire a long time ago told me that losing people who wear the uniform is part of the deal that comes with it. Now, good day, Scott, have a pleasent flight back East."

Cerebro stood up and stalked out of the office with his shoulders squared and his face not betraying an ounce of the fury he felt. Or the shock at himself for having unloaded on the man that once was his hero when he first left the dark world Soul had introduced him to and entered the world of the X-Men.

[dc]

Looking up and over from his bottle, Wolverine peered at Kurt and said as he took a drink, "How do you think I'm handling it, bub?"

[Foley]

Kurt smiled slightly, "In your typical, bury-it-so-deep-that-it-can-not-bubble-back-up-to-the-surface manner that we all know and love. But, mein friend, in the past decades that you have lived, you and I both know that that method only works for so long."

Leaping off the bed and crossing over to the door that somehow Juggernaut blissfully managed not to block, Kurt looked over his shoulder and said, "My duties on the East Coast are all but concluded and I haff always loved the natural setting of Cerebro's base...so I think I will stay."

He nodded in an exagerated manner as he opened the door, "Yes, I think I will stay in case I am needed to hear confessions or sooth spirits."

With that Nightcrawler left to inform Cerebro of his decision. Wolverine sat there shaking his head just as Juggernaut came too, sat up, sniffed the air and looked squearely at him.

"Dude, you seriously need to light a match or som'thin'," Cain said before passing back out with a thud on the floor.