Xaviers!

The remote hit the ground, slipping out of Leo's large hand as he stared at the television. There had been a massive breakout from Muir. To the huge boy's horror, two of the escapee mugshots currently paused on-screen were the now permanently bull-headed Taurus and the dinosaur/ape-thing that Doctor Evo had become.

The hair on his neck rose, his claws extended, a low growl sounded from his throat, and his tail prepared to strike. The TV was doomed unless someone intervened.

(open)

"Well shit. Didn't we just put those guys away?" somebody said. Or something. The coffee table between the couch and the TV has knocked down the books and magazines (who even reads magazines still?) that were sitting on it by talking, which deformed the table top in the approximation of a mouth.

With a startled snarl, Leo's powerful tail drove his stinger into the table hard enough to crack the wood.

The stinger manages to snap the not that sturdy table top, which somehow ejects a stream of pink goop that hits the floor and takes the shape of a wobbly Robin.

"Whoa, watcha do that for, dude?"

Leo's expression turned to confused and guilt-ridden horror as he pulled back his tail.

"I... I didn't... I didn't mean to... I didn't know..."

"Bit twitchy huh? S'fine, I'd be too."

"You're... okay?" he asked.

"Little wobbly. Always takes a moment to sort myself out after getting squalched. Sorry, forcibly dislocated by... what was it... interruption of the primed scaffolding!" she finishes proudly quoting her mother. "You know. Squalched." she adds with a chuckle.

"Good," he said, relief washing over his features. "And sorry. I... don't usually lash out like that."

"Apology accepted. And on account of the poor table as well." she chuckles.

"Thinking about the people who made me like this getting out makes me so angry I lost myself for a moment. I'm just glad someone I could hurt didn't startle me," he said, anger and fear tinging his words.

"It is messed up that those guys got out already." she says a little diplomatically.

"They won't be out long if I have anything to say about it," he said darkly, unconsciously flexing his claws.

"And then what? When you do find them somehow?" she says, glancing down at the destroyed table.

After a moment of silence, he growled and snapped, "I don't God damn know okay?! Part of me wants to tear them apart and another knows that's the animal talking and yet another doesn't care."

"If you do that... they win." she says in a rare moment of not sounding irreverent or goofy about something.

"The dead can't win anything."

"You kill them and it'll..." she starts and ends up grasping for the right words. "It'll be about them. Forever. What they made you do."

He sighed, anger sounding the retreat.

"And I'll be the monster they wanted me to be... won't I?"

"Yes! That!" she bursts out before clearing her throat. "Ahm. Yes. Exactly. They'd live in your head rent free for the rest of your life."

"They already do, but I get your point. I don't have to give them the lease... or whatever... I'm not good with metaphors."

"And that's why the good guys don't kill anyone." she nods. It feels like this should go at the end of a longer, more involved talk of some kind instead of the cliff notes version. "And you strike me as a good guy. With... some anger issues."

"I don't feel like much of a good guy yet, but thanks. I'm trying to be. There's... someone I want to deserve."

"You don't gotta save anyone or be heroic for that, you know. Just... be better. Be good."

"He thinks I can be. Nobody's ever had that kind of faith in me before."

"I'm glad he does then! Everyone should have people who believe in them."

"It is nice, yes," he said with a smile, "And I want to try. Not just for him, but for me."

"That's the spirit! And we'll get those crazies back behind bars. S'what the X-Men do."

"I... definitely have some work to do before signing up, huh?" he asked, looking down at the table.

"I dunno, you direct some of that in the right places..." she shrugs. "I bet they'll talk about discipline and... maybe that's right for you, who knows, but more often than not feels like you just gotta find what's right for you. For me it's mah gut!" she says and blows up her stomach to give it a solid pat.

"You still gotta learn the teamwork and all that, but for your 'thing'? Your baggage? You gotta find your own way of dealing."

"It's getting easier the more I get used to this body. That part of my baggage anyway. The stabby part. The rest I'm used to carrying."

"More often than not they're not all that separate. Or maybe that's just shapeshifters. I got some pretty specialized lessons on all of this." she says before her comedically large stomach snaps back to normal and she gets a horrified expression on her face. "Oh no. I'm sounding like my parents!"

He chuckled. "Yeah, well, I'm no shifter. Though this form is allegedly the decision of my subconscious. It's how Narumi says it works anyway."

"Is he the expert? I guess he would be. Still, prolly not quite as applicable cause it's all static now."

"Exactly. He can't really help with what I'm going through and I don't want him hanging around reminding me how stuck I am. He doesn't have to worry about animal instinct either."

"I can't even imagine. Not being what you want to be is... I don't even know. It sucks!"

"Before this, I never really got people who felt wrong in their own body. Now I can't help but get what they mean. It's a terrible feeling."