The Amazing Nightcrawler

//

While Remy would hope to say that he learned his lesson, he most likely had not. But at least he would not try lighting the burner any other way than with a match from now on. “Pardon, mon ami. Now you see why I don’ like t’ be responsible for too much. Me an’ responsibility don’ really mix.” But he certainly did care about his friends and allies, and that would always supersede any less-than-careful behavior on Remy’s part.

“De Brimstone Dimension? Pfft, somehow I don’ t'ink puttin’ a li'l food dere is gonna be a problem.” He had no idea what that dimension was like, but judging by the name, they probably did not have any nice table settings sitting around. “A horrible influence?” Remy made a face, but he would not deny that was probably true. “Oh merci, Kurt! You goin’ above an’ beyond!” Grinning, he scooped the remains of the gumbo into the box, then stepped aside to let Kurt do…whatever he needed to do.

Kurt took the box in his hands, making a face when the contacts swished inside, and the few drops on the outside made contact with his hands. as great as Remy’s cooking was, it got slightly less appetizing after spending a brief amount of time getting acquittanced with the floor of the Mousehole’s kitchen. “Be back in a moment, Herr LeBeau.” Kurt said with a wink, teleporting away and re-appearing almost instantly with no box in his hands.

.

“Then I’ll make it happen one day when I finally get back to touring,” Ali said brightly, making a mental note to do exactly that. She wanted to start cultivating a far safer space in her shows, a true sense that any mutant could join the crowd and be safe there too. She owed that much.

“Ah, Hollywood madness as ever - I definitely have gossip that should never leave certain circles,” she joked, although there was amused mischief in her eyes as she shifted towards him, leaning comfortably against the back of the sofa. “Always something going on!”

Ali hummed, as if deep in thought as she mentally rifled through the veritable roster of gossip she held on lock. “Well, I could tell stories about celebrity house parties that would make the X-Men look like a stable family unit,” she laughed.

“It has been too boring around here. Maybe a little gossip will help spice things up.” Kurt said with a grin. He could relate to loving to perform in front of a crowd; the rush that came with a live audience, the heat from the stage lights warming his skin. He missed it sometimes, as awful as his conditions were, it was something amazing that could never be replicated.

“Not much going on around here. I’ve already gone through most of the library and talked to everyone here. Take me with you if you go touring.” Kurt said with a fake pleading tone in his voice.

ooOOoo

“Ahhh, well,” Alex murmured with a smile, letting the words bob out gently, a rowboat in placid waters, “as much as I’ve never been offered a first time like that exactly, I think we should save it for when it’s really needed. I don’t know if I’m ready yet for that kind of excitement.” He chuckled a little, adding, “–feel free to call me liebling as much as you like, though. I don’t have enough nicknames. I’m starting to feel a little slighted in that area, fuzzy elf.”

Kurt’s more solemn tone when he made his offer of acceptance did strike Alex a touch more deeply, though. He wasn’t looking for religion in his life – having been in a cult, no matter that he’d been quite literally mind-wiped in order to be part of it – had made Alex wary of anything that even smacked of communal belief. But Kurt was so gentle, and so steadfast in his own belief while leaving the question of devotion open and non-specific to a denomination, that Alex almost felt tempted.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said. “And thank you. For extending the offer.” And then Kurt took his pronged hands back once Alex had let his plasma energy fizzle softly away, bringing up Ali, and Alex rolled his eyes at being back on more familiar ground. 

“Watch out,” he said dryly, “if you mention the mere possibility of Ali being able to pop up and regale you with one of her renditions of ABBA or Bananarama songs, it’s gonna happen. I don’t know if her powers give her super-hearing too but I could swear she’s got it.” Alex paused for a moment, then compulsively sang, “–yeah baby she’s got it, I’m your Venus, I’m your fire–” before stopping himself with a huffing laugh. 

The subject of his potential image inducer made Kurt lean in, and Alex automatically leaned to meet him despite it being entirely unnecessary. “What are your walks like?” he asked, fascinated by this confession, holding back the urge to simply tax Kurt three Hail Marys and a bedtime Our Father. “How do you keep hidden? I mean, there have to be people in Matchak who aren’t, well, exactly unaccustomed to seeing mutants and metahumans. Do you figure out who’s going to be okay with it and who isn’t?”

“Nicknames are a mutual thing. Liebling is more of a-” default for when Kurt needed to seem friendly? “Placeholder for now. Until I can think of a better one.” Not like Kurt had many nicknames outside of variants on ‘elf’, which were leagues better than some of the other thing he’s been called over his many years.

“I will not be mad at Dazzler joining us. She seems to be a wonderful person, and her music is pretty good.” Kurt wasn’t much of a music-aficionado, but he could recognize a good tune when he heard it. And of course he was going to support any project that a fellow mutant was doing. Maybe not the best way of going about life, but mutants had to support each other. He laughed Alex started singing.

“She better watch out! You might take her place.” Kurt said with a smile. “when is the album coming out?”

ooOOoo

It felt a little bit like with every new thing Kurt said, Alex was learning some new and even more peculiar factoid about his fellow X-Man. Family who lived in the hell dimension? “Would it sound terrible if I confess I can’t remember if you’ve teleported me ever?” Alex shook his head with a delicate snort. “Between the high adrenaline of being in the thick of fights against the Brotherhood or whoever, and the number of times I’ve been knocked unconscious, and that’s not even starting on the bouts of amnesia? Who even knows anymore.”

Kurt talked a little bit about his view of faith, ending with the little self-dismissal, and Alex shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t know how comfortable I am personally with religion,” he said, “but I can see the value of faith, itself. Whether that’s in a higher power or in ourselves or in each other. The family I grew up with went to church every Sunday, we said grace over meals, but it wasn’t much more than that. If it had been maybe I would’ve stuck with church.”

Maybe he’d have had something to stay in Hawai’i for, instead of coming to the mainland. But then he might not have had Scott and the other Xs around when his powers had come blasting to the fore. He’d never have had the chance to learn to control them. And maybe he would’ve ended up the stardust that Kurt called him, as Alex looked down at Kurt’s unique hands resting gently in his own, star-warmth between them. “Have faith, Herr Wagner,” Alex murmured, titching the heat up a notch before letting it dissipate in a wobble of pale light radiating out from where they were touching. “I wouldn’t hurt you.”

Alex dropped his hands, rubbing them against his thighs to get rid of the tickly feeling when Kurt mentioned who it was exactly who was assisting him with an imaging device. “Hank,” Alex said, shaking his head with a soft smile. “Of course, Hank. It’s probably as good as solved, then.”

“We can go, right now, if you wish.” Kurt said, holding out his hand. “Not to the... Brimstone Dimension. Well, briefly. But a few feet away.” He waggled his eyebrows for added convincing. Alex had a unique way of sandwiching trauma inbetween funny other words, and sometimes Kurt’s brain took a few seconds to decipher what he was saying. Or if what he was saying needed acknowledgment. “Nothing like the first time, mein liebling. I promise to go slow. weich, sanft und süß.” Kurt grinned. And the other part about Alex, he was incredibly easy to flirt with.

“You are always welcome wherever I am. No matter what you are bringing, or want to leave with.” Kurt said solemnly. Many people he knew have had some sort of religious dislike from different events in their lives, and it was part of his self-sworn tasks to help alleviate it in some way. And if they left not wanting to join, that was fine. But it brought him pain to know others had derived misery from something he held so close to him.

“I know you won’t. You are too nice for that.” Kurt chuckled softly, his hands still fluttering on top of Alex’s. His longer fingers could easily curl around Alex’s, but he refrained from doing anything too weird. He put his arms back by his side. “Lights? Just like our very own Dazzler. Are you going to sing for me next, Herr Summers?” 

“I would hope so. I miss being able to just- go outside. I haven’t been to the markets in daylight. Do not tell the others, but,” Kurt leaned in, “Often, at nights, I slip away. Go walk through the city. I cannot spend my entire life cooped up like some- animal.”

//

Kurt’s southern accent impression made Remy chuckle. “Alrigh’, alrigh’, you got me. But I wasn’t bein’ impatient! I was bein’…well, lazy, which is…jus’ as bad. Ok, d'accord. I shouldn’t o’ been cuttin’ corners.” Even if he was cutting corners with some of the preparations, though, he certainly did not with the actual food. “Oh don’ go t'inkin’ dat, mon ami! I always turn out a good product, even if I might not do it quite de righ’ way.”

He shrugged a bit at Kurt’s glare, not denying that he would love to have his friend clean up. “I’ll take responsibility, but if you can clean it up faster, I see nothin’ wrong dere!” Hearing that he could teleport it, Remy rubbed his hands together, completely missing Kurt’s plea for him to have some sense. “Parfait! I can get somet'ing t’ put it in…sure.” He looked around, then finally spotted an empty box. “Will dis do?”

“A slack hand causes poverty.” Kurt muttered to himself. The food wasn’t a huge deal; they had tons of storage, but it was still annoying that it was currently on the floor. He had no idea what she saw in him. Not that Remy was bad or annoying, but he was...Remy. Remy who showed Kurt a card trick the first day they met.  Remy who spilled food all over the floor. 

“I guess?” Kurt said, glancing at the box. “Morally, I do not agree with dumping trash in the Brimstone Dimension. You are a horrible influence on me. I was so sweet when I first got here. Corrupted.” Kurt shook his head. “Put in in the box, I will clean up your mess. Don’t say I never do anything for you, ja?”

.

His charm was something found often in the circles she ran in but there was always something extra to it when she knew the other understood the very unique intersection of her mutantdom and her life. So, it was easy to flirt back, mindless charm dripping from both of their words as they interacted. She could get used to being surrounded by people like this. The nickname was enough to make her grin, a flash of ivory teeth as she nodded. “Definitely something like that.”

And then she reached out to squeeze his hand. “Next time I get up on a stage, you let me know your availability and I’ll save you tickets! I always want you guys to come see me perform if you can.”

Ali grinned and rested her chin on her hand as she gazed at him. “Well, I have plenty of fun little anecdotes, although I imagine you have plenty of X-Men related ones too,” she said brightly. “And we can certainly make up for this terrible oversight now,” she nodded, keeping up with that same faux-seriousness.

“I would love to see it! Always wonderful to see a true showman in her element.” Kurt said with a grin. And it had been so long since he’s seen a show, a good show. Concerts weren’t his usual type of beat, and this was more of an empty promise than anything concrete. 

“I have many stories, my liebling, but I fear yours are far greater. At least we can both come together on confusing family lineages?” Kurt said perching himself on the arm of the couch. “Your life as a pop star superhero will far outweigh anyone else who is here.”

Kurt made himself as comfortable as he could on the arm of the couch, wiggling back and forth to get sated. “Superhero stuff is boring. I want the good stuff. Nothing happens here.”

Obviously Kurt would know Remy was lying. But come on, it was not like he was just going to up and admit his screw-up, even to someone he had known for a good long while. “Um, would you believe a rat came in an’ said he wanted t’ try cookin’, made de mess an’ den thought he’d blame it on me ‘cause we got de same name?” Again Remy offered a grin, knowing he was probably blowing this even worse now.

He was, since Kurt had seen the incident. Well that was that. Remy sighed. “Ok, you got me, mon ami. Jus’ don’ got tellin’ no one else 'bout dis. Don’ want 'em t'inkin’ I ain’t doin’ my job righ’.” Trying to blast the food off the floor would probably only make things worse, and Remy could not charge anything organic anyway. “I can’t charge up de food, so prob'ly not. Wait…could you teleport it away somehow?” He knew Kurt could teleport himself, but maybe if he touched the food at the same time?

“I did see a rat do this. A swamp rat, to be precise.” Kurt said, using an exaggerated Southern accent on the nickname. “You are not patient enough. How do you expect a good end product if you rush through the entire thing?” Kurt tutted as he drew his legs up to the counter, as if scared that the mess would touch him.

Kurt gave him a look that could melt ice. “So, I am expected to clean up your messes? You will take no responsibility for this?” Kurt said slowly. “Scheiße. Of course I can teleport food! I’ve-” Kurt stared at the ceiling. “I’m praying that God bestows you the sense you need, and bestows upon me the strength to not scream.” Kurt looked back down. “It would have to be in one... container. I can’t just do a heap.”

.

Ali laughed at that, eyes bright as he bowed to kiss her hand. “What a gentleman,” she teased, voice warm with fondness at the action. She had barely known Kurt in her time with the X-Men but he was certainly endearing himself to her already. Her power had settled the room into a warming, pleasant light even as she shifted to look more fully at him, her head tilting to lean against the heel of her hand.

“I’m doing my best! I love performing and I like to help out so it’s a good balance,” she grinned, raking her free hand through her hair casually. “Just a whole lot of juggling things around.” It was true that Ali spent a lot of her time trying to reconcile the X-Man Dazzler and the performer Dazzler. She was just doing her best.

The pun elicited a good-natured laugh and she dipped her head. “I will definitely do my best.”

“I try, I try.” Kurt also said, with a laugh. At least someone here wasn’t tired of his casanova routine yet. And it helped that Alison, like many of the superpowered females that populated Kurt’s life, was beautiful. And there was some beautiful poetry in the contrast of their powers, how Kurt had to stick to shadows and darkness, and Alison seemed to be more ‘ray of sun’ that a human being. He wasn’t used to being in direct light like this. Blending into the shadows was comforting.

“Many balls in the air? Many fingers in many pies, mein Lichtstrahl?” Kurt said again. “I wish I could have seen you perform. I have seen some online, but I know they would pale in comparison to the real thing.”

“You will do amazing. Please, I would love to hear more about your life. If you have no where to be. I’m afraid we’ve never gotten to spend time, despite being the 2 most attractive X-Men.” Kurt shook his head, as if overcome with a great sadness.

From the dusty corners of Dunfee on, Hank had been told, more than once, that you could get used to anything. Personally, he’d found the evidence rather mixed. Running telepathic commentary during staff meetings? A Monday. Having to MacGyver supersonic stealth jet repairs out of scrapyard parts in a foreign country? Well, being an X-Man meant so many splendid opportunities for travel, and when in Rome. (Or Kharkiv, as the case had been.) A blue, faintly fiendish teleporter erupting into view around the mansion they’d once called home, brimstone cloud and all? Just Kurt, ranking high on the list of the sweetest souls he’d ever known. 

Beast, though. He’d never got used to that. Not truly.

Only on the surface. Which was enough. His codename glanced off, stinging, like always, but not a scratch to be seen. “Not even especially perturbed, as it stands,” Hank sighed, pushing his reading glasses up, off. And smiling, even with a headache kicking hard through the side of his skull. (Really should check those glasses, his eyes; a prescription adjustment might do a little at least to sort all that gathering tension out. A mental note, for later review.) “It’s lovely to see you, Kurt. That being said,” he’d stood, with a crack of his neck, and vaulted neatly over his note-covered table, beckoning the ever-incredible Nightcrawler over to the nearest workbench. “I won’t keep you in suspense for the sake of small talk.” It didn’t look like much, perhaps - Hank turned around with what, to all appearances, was a watch. He kept it in hand: a discreet band of aluminum, domed sapphire crystal, and a few astonishingly powerful laser diodes. More than a few. “Now, this is, to be clear, a working prototype. Something so individual merits more personalized testing than I could manage without the end user on hand. I’ll have to do some adjustments, I’m sure. Should I bore you with the details, or skip along to the caveats?” There were many of both. The latter, at least, couldn’t be done without. The former? Well, Hank had, at least, gotten used to the fact that most people didn’t much care how things worked, so long as they did. 

“I’m afraid I can’t keep up with much of your scientific talk.” Kurt said, glancing between the watch and Hank’s face. He had little patience for such things he was never going to understand, and he was also desperate to get a hold of the watch. He should probably be worried that he was so eager to get his hands on something that would change his appearence, but this was different than last time. He just needed to survive day to day here, and not be receiving looks in the streets whenever he went out. “I will listen, but I make no promises that I will understand.” Kurt said with a grin, settling in on top of a table.

He should know how it worked, in case something went wrong. But the talk of merits, and testing already had his head spinning, and maybe not in the best way. Hank did have a habit of assuming everyone he talked to also had 7 PhD’s in science, and his language reflected such. “Describe it to me, as if you were teaching a class to children, Herr McCoy. I am a captive audience.” Kurt put his chin in his hands, looking every inch someone who was paying attention and ready and eager to learn. The watch was nice-looking. Something he would wear out for a fancy evening, but not too gaudy that it was draw attention to him. Even the gem placed inside was blue, perhaps a reminder of Kurt’s true form. 

“It sounds better then the one Herr Richards made. And less invasive questions as well. I say you did a wonderful job on this, and I cannot thank you enough for all your hard work. You never cease to amaze me.”

ooOOoo

“Wow. That’s … I don’t know if I ever asked, or if I ever, um, knew that?” Alex skewed one side of his mouth, with a small eek sound to accompany it and demonstrate how perturbed he was about that fact. “That’s a lot to go through every time you use your teleportation powers. And you just … I mean, you do it so often! People sometimes ask you to teleport bang-bang-bang right after the other! And you’re going through a hell dimension each time?”

Alex shook his head. “No wonder you’re so religious. I’d probably be clinging to my faith with my fingernails if I had to deal with that.” Especially the way Kurt put it, that the magic stuck to his fur. Probably he was just joking by that point, but Alex was pretty sure that was going to stay with him. Stuck in his fur, metaphorically speaking.

At least it wasn’t a hardship on Kurt to explain his powers, and Alex was sort of glad that the questioning was reciprocated. Made him worry less that Kurt thought he was being treated like a circus oddity or something. In the world of the homo superior, everyone was some kind of oddity.

“I do. I absorb ambient cosmic energy, in fact. My body’s like a reactor for it – it seeps into me, constantly, and the plasma charges are what come out. Under my control, if I’m lucky.” Alex turned his hands palms-up, thrusting them out somewhat. “Go ahead, feel for yourself. I can temper it most of the time these days, after spending this many years training and learning to keep a rein on it, but I do run hot.”

The subject of Kurt’s being able to disguise his looks sounded like well-trodden ground, so Alex merely nodded and didn’t pursue that topic further. “I think the blue looks nice,” he said instead. “The fur too. So to hell with the rest of ‘em.”

“I mean- part of my family lives there. It is all bad.” Kurt felt a strange need to defend the Brimstone dimension, almost like it was a dingy apartment it lived in. Sure it was awful, and smelled like chemicals, but it was where he spent a majority of his time, whether he realized it or not. “For a brief, very-brief, second. Haven’t you teleported with me, mein freund? I ensure you, I haven’t had any complaints yet.”

“Nein, I was saved by the church early on. It is always comforting to believe in a higher power when so much wrong is going on. As least someone is watching out for you. Someone has a reason why all this is happening.” Kurt scrunched his face up, looking up towards the open sky. “But I doubt you want to hear about all of that.”

Kurt stared at the other man’s hand for a second, almost as if it was a practical joke. After a few moments, he carefully laid his three-pronged hand on top of Alex’s, waiting for something to happen. “You are literally made of stardust.” He said in awe. Kurt snapped out of it to look back at their hands. “I ask that you do not burn my hands off. I would prefer it.”

Kurt’s cheeks blushed a dark indigo at the compliment. “Danke. I’m stuck with it, so I must learn to love it.” Kurt said with a grin. “Herr Beast is working on some sort of device to help me look slightly more... human. So I can venture outside these walls.”

.

The nickname made Jean grin, sharply amused and a little bit fond, even as she shook her head a little. “It always seems that way but nothing has come of it yet,” she warned him casually, even as she leant in further to lightly tap at his cheek teasingly. It was easy to fall into familiar patterns with the X-Men.

She grimaced faintly though and sighed. “Not sure if you can be in charge of a team that doesn’t even really exist anymore.” There was no heat in the remark, only an odd sort of resignation. “It’s strange to think that the X-Men don’t exist,” she added.

“I mean- legally, no.” Kurt said, after thinking for a moment. Legality has never really been a huge issue for the X-Men before, Lord knows that had enough secret, underground teams that even he didn’t know the full extent of. And all sort of people who were wanted in one way or another had taken sanctuary within their walls.

“We have always existed as more of a family than a team, and we have not cared for the law many times in the past.” Kurt said, sliding up closer to Jean. “I know you know of... the whispers. Rumors. We’ve always existed more or less on the outside, ja?” He raised his eyebrows, “Or at least, I have.”

There were reasons why Remy did not do too well with responsibility, and this was one of them. Yes he had volunteered to cook for the occupants of the Mousehole, and yes he did know his way around a kitchen. But he also had a reckless streak a mile wide, and when the burner on the stove just would not light, instead of grabbing for a match like he should have done, Remy instead touched the burner and gave it a small charge. A small charge, yet one plenty strong enough to send the pot and all its contents into the air…which promptly came down half on Remy and half on the floor. 

“Merde,” he groaned, wiping remnants of the gumbo out of his eyes. He was smarting over his mistake, but it suddenly became a whole lot worse when he looked up and realized someone had witnessed everything. Grinning sheepishly, he gestured to the mess and said, “Ah, what can I say? Dis stuff is so hot it won’ even stay in de pot!”

“Nein, I know exactly what happened.” Kurt said, carefully stepping around the spilled food on the floor. Of course, knowing Remy for as long as he has, and having to occupy the same manor as him for most of that time, he was privy to what Remy did. How he thought. About how a guy who could throw things really well, could end up with food on the floor, and an almost-sheepish grin on his face.

“I also saw what you did, so not much room for trying to get out of it, mein freund.” Kurt nimbly lifted himself onto the one clean part of the counter, looking at the carnage that surrounded them. “Should you try those blasts again? Perhaps it would get it off the floor this time.”

.

It wasn’t that Alison was unused to being recognised - she was, actually, recognised more often than not at this point in her career which she was always enormously grateful for, obviously - but to hear the voice of a X-Man, and in such shock at that, made her laugh brightly, shifting to settle her aura into a more welcoming and comforting ambience as she turned her head to take in the sight of Kurt Wagner. She didn’t know him well but she liked his quick questioning of her and the way he stared in abject confusion. “Don’t worry, I completely just sort of took over this room while no one was here.”

“And only a little bit famous,” she joked lightly, brushing blonde waves back from her eyes as she leant on the back of the sofa, holding Kurt’s gaze. “Decided to take a break from shows after Coachella - it was exhausting.”

“And figured I could come around and do some good - put my money where my mouth is type deal.” And then there was Genosha and everything that came with that. She wondered if Kurt had any opinions.

“You do have a tendency to shine brighter than most.” Kurt said, letting his suave mask slip into place. Of course he was still immensely nervous about talking to her at all, seeing as she was a Celebrity even in the eyes of Kurt, but it was easy to play the charmer. It was also helpful that Dazzler was very attractive. “In terms of power, and beauty.” Kurt said, taking a deep bow as he kissed the top of her hand.

“A little bit? Nein, you are too humble.” Kurt said with a smile as he straightened his back. “Gracing stages and battlefields. You are one of a kind.” It was true. He was sure no other X-Men could lead a double life much like she could, and he knew how difficult that must be. 

“We are glad to have you. Perhaps you could help shed some light on our situation, ja?”

xxx

“Surely it must be a sign that I’m starting to feel better?” Logan suggested then waved off the bleach in his eyes things with a shake of his head. “Like you’ve never had someone walk in on you.” 

“Oh?” With a raised eyebrow, he turned to look at Kurt again. “A dinner? Huh.” Logan pulled on a shirt over the vest then his boots as the other continued to speak in that low tone. “Hm, why? Why are some feeling like they need to leave here? Or will that be discussed that night?” 

“I can lock doors! And I am not that much of a voyeur.” Kurt said, stomping one foot in the ground. There seemed to be some sort of rumor circling the X-team that Kurt was some sort of playboy, which hadn’t been true in many years.

“I believe, it is because some of us still feel like outsiders.” Kurt said, laying it on thick with the ‘some of us’, meaning mostly the mutants that couldn’t pass as human. Which meant, mostly Kurt. Maybe he was being ridiculous. “That may be a given, with the mutants. But it is nice to have a family dinner. Hopefully some of our actual family won’t show up, ja?”

.

Jean offered a sly smile, shaking her head a little. “You’re insatiable. You’ll get no good gossip from me,” she teased, reaching out to swat his arm lightly. It wasn’t as if she was unaware of the whispers - and the idle thoughts - that slipped through everyone’s heads. Didn’t mean she had to share any real truth about anything.

“I may have caught wind of such a thing. It’ll…certainly be interesting. Definitely the place to get yourself involved in some gossip in real time,” Jean added, although she had to consciously focus on not grimacing. There were certainly going to be some controversial takes being slung around.

“More than just gossip, my little Rotkopf.” Kurt said, leaning in. Although he tended to be more of a pacifist than his fellow X-team members, he knew how to sense that something was brewing. And there were talks. Talks that could be easily overheard by a mutant lurking in the shadows.

“Have you- possibly, heard anything? You are in charge of us all right now.” Us being the X-men, who despite the Mousehole’s best efforts, always existed outside of the rest of the team. He was sure any mutant was going to fit outside of the team.