Post by Havok on Mar 12, 2009 10:55:30 GMT -4
All was quiet today at the X-factor headquarters in Washington, D.C. Peacefully quiet.
Too bad it wouldn't last. There weren't any mutant problems going on today that the government needed to step into, so most of the team were out and about. Lorna was out shopping, Guido and Madrox were only God knew where (and Alex hoped they weren't hiding somewhere in HQ waiting to pull a prank on him), Quicksilver had run off (literally), and Rahne was with Lorna at the mall. Alex was at HQ alone facing a threat to mankind more insidious than Mr. Sinister: bureaucracy.
Val Cooper had brought some Senator or someone along who was the leader of the task force that approved the members of the task force that funded the task force that determined what X-Factor's budget was.
At least, he thought that's who this guy was. Val talked really fast, but he did know that the word "task force" had been used quite a bit.
"So you see, sir," said the Senator, a rather portly man with a balding scalp, thin-rimmed glasses and a tailored suit. "I need to know if America's money is being well-spent. There have been some complaints about your group, and I've been sent to make sure everything is okay."
"What complaints?" Alex knew that his team sometimes used, er, questionable tactics when dealing with mutant threats, and that sometimes things didn't go as planned. Okay, about half the time things didn't go as planned. But he'd never heard any formal complaints. He wore his cleanest uniform, the X-factor insignia large across his torso. He felt somewhat underdressed in this scenario.
"Well," the Senator began, sitting down at a table and pulling some papers out of a briefcase. "Property damages mostly," he thumbed through some sheafs. "Failed to prevent the destruction of a building by, ahem, the 'Hell's Belle's'-"
"But we got everyone out safely, including the person we'd been trying to protect," Alex pointed out, taking a seat at the table with the Senator. Hey, if the Senator didn't have to stand, he wasn't about to.
"-and then team member, er, 'Strong Guy,' wantonly destroyed the foundation of said building, preventing reconstruction." The Senator looked up at him over the rim of his glasses, as if waiting for an answer to that one.
"He absorbs kinetic energy. Between a bomb and the building falling down on him, he had a lot built up. He needed to get rid of it, otherwise he could have exploded, killing everyone in the area just like the bomb would have."
The Senator nodded sagely. "Is that why he destroyed the Washington Monument?"
Ooh. Yeah. That one wasn't so easily explained. He had been fighting a bad guy that had singled him out, and one of his punches had missed, hitting the Washington Monument, and, well, knocking it over. He explained this to the Senator, who just stared at him with eyes that were simultaneously condescending and grandfatherly. He had no idea how the man did that.
"Uh," he added sheepishly, "He is called Strong Guy for a reason."
"I see," he thumbed through some more papers. "Destruction of a dock while fighting the 'Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.' Public brawling between your team member 'Multiple Man' and, well, apparently himself. Flagrant-"
"Okay, you can stop there," Alex said, closing his eyes and putting his hand up to signal to the man to stop. He'd tried to be a good leader. He really had. But part of being a good leader was keeping your team in line. Granted, that wasn't particularly easy with this group. But that wasn't an excuse. He rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers while he thought. Another part of being a good leader is sticking up for your team, even when they do something the superiors think is wrong.
"We're not perfect," he finally said, meeting the man's eyes again. "But no one is, and I'd say we're about as close as you're going to find to being a team that works perfectly together. Our team member, Strong Guy, had been poisoned during that bomb thing, and yet he still continued to fight. And if he hadn't intervened when that four-armed freak started tearing through D.C., you'd probably have a lot more on your hands than one destroyed monument. Madrox may not be the most serious of people, but he keeps our spirits up and is remarkably useful when we need sheer manpower on our side. And the dock was a small price to pay to prevent the Brotherhood from recruiting wayward Genoshans into their ranks. Or would you rather have a mutant army at your doorstep?
"We've fought together, bled together, and very nearly died together. Somehow, we've pulled our way out. Despite having not worked together for very long, we each understand how the others work, and we don't get in each other's way out there. If you can find another team who can do that in their first fight together, like we did, then I've got some property in Arizona to sell you." There. He felt a little self-righteous, but that didn't bother him that much. He stood up and walked a little away from the table so that Val and the Senator could talk. They chatted for a bit, Val being very serious, and it gave Alex some time to think.
The first thing he thought of was, "Why the heck did so many evil organizations have such stupid names?" Hell's Belle's, the Nasty Boys, The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The second thing he thought, right after that, was, "And why do all good mutant organizations have an X in their name?"
Then he brought himself back on track. He thought about what could happen, about how the team could be disbanded if this Senator thought they were wasting taxpayer's money. Were they? Could the Washington Monument really just be written off as "collateral damage?" Well, it didn't actually look anything like George Washington. Maybe now they had an excuse to give him a statue, like Lincoln. Lord knows the man deserved it.
If worse came to worse, he'd sacrifice himself for the team. He'd claim that all their problems lay with him and he should be replaced as team leader. Is that what Scott would do? Or would he have fought harder?
He supposed that was the trouble with living in shadows: it was hard to see clearly. He had to think for himself. What would Alex do? Well, he supposed he had already done it. But there was probably more he could do. Too late to do it, now.
The Senator walked up to him, his papers back in his briefcase, and offered his hand, without really saying a word. Alex took it, and shook it firmly, before the Senator left.
"How do you think it went?" he asked Val. She had worn a blue tailored suit that looked good on her. Probably wore it because of that.
"Could have gone worse. We'll know in about three to four months."
"Months?" Alex narrowed his brows, confused and a little bit miffed. He didn't really want to wait that long to find out if he needed to start finding a new place to live.
"Well, yeah, they have to discuss it in Congress. I think they'll come around, though, and keep funding the program." She walked over to the fridge, and got out a bottle of water, taking a quick swig before continuing, "Don't sweat it. You're not a politician or a bureaucrat. I am, though, and I want this team to keep going. I'll handle it."
Alex didn't really like that answer, either, but he couldn't argue with it. It seemed as though, once again, someone else was going to have to clean up his mess. He sat on the edge of the table he'd been sitting at earlier, wondering what had been going through the Senator's mind. Had he seen a leader? Or had he seen someone who was bumbling along trying?
Did Alex see himself as a leader? Not really. Maybe that made him better for the job. He didn't know. He just knew that if he screwed up, even once, he probably wouldn't get a second chance.
If this was how Scott felt all the time, it was no wonder he looked like he'd just swallowed a whole lemon.
The door closed behind him, indicating that Val had left or someone had come in. He turned around to find himself alone in an empty room. It was quiet at the X-Factor headquarters. Oppressively quiet.
He wished it would end.
Too bad it wouldn't last. There weren't any mutant problems going on today that the government needed to step into, so most of the team were out and about. Lorna was out shopping, Guido and Madrox were only God knew where (and Alex hoped they weren't hiding somewhere in HQ waiting to pull a prank on him), Quicksilver had run off (literally), and Rahne was with Lorna at the mall. Alex was at HQ alone facing a threat to mankind more insidious than Mr. Sinister: bureaucracy.
Val Cooper had brought some Senator or someone along who was the leader of the task force that approved the members of the task force that funded the task force that determined what X-Factor's budget was.
At least, he thought that's who this guy was. Val talked really fast, but he did know that the word "task force" had been used quite a bit.
"So you see, sir," said the Senator, a rather portly man with a balding scalp, thin-rimmed glasses and a tailored suit. "I need to know if America's money is being well-spent. There have been some complaints about your group, and I've been sent to make sure everything is okay."
"What complaints?" Alex knew that his team sometimes used, er, questionable tactics when dealing with mutant threats, and that sometimes things didn't go as planned. Okay, about half the time things didn't go as planned. But he'd never heard any formal complaints. He wore his cleanest uniform, the X-factor insignia large across his torso. He felt somewhat underdressed in this scenario.
"Well," the Senator began, sitting down at a table and pulling some papers out of a briefcase. "Property damages mostly," he thumbed through some sheafs. "Failed to prevent the destruction of a building by, ahem, the 'Hell's Belle's'-"
"But we got everyone out safely, including the person we'd been trying to protect," Alex pointed out, taking a seat at the table with the Senator. Hey, if the Senator didn't have to stand, he wasn't about to.
"-and then team member, er, 'Strong Guy,' wantonly destroyed the foundation of said building, preventing reconstruction." The Senator looked up at him over the rim of his glasses, as if waiting for an answer to that one.
"He absorbs kinetic energy. Between a bomb and the building falling down on him, he had a lot built up. He needed to get rid of it, otherwise he could have exploded, killing everyone in the area just like the bomb would have."
The Senator nodded sagely. "Is that why he destroyed the Washington Monument?"
Ooh. Yeah. That one wasn't so easily explained. He had been fighting a bad guy that had singled him out, and one of his punches had missed, hitting the Washington Monument, and, well, knocking it over. He explained this to the Senator, who just stared at him with eyes that were simultaneously condescending and grandfatherly. He had no idea how the man did that.
"Uh," he added sheepishly, "He is called Strong Guy for a reason."
"I see," he thumbed through some more papers. "Destruction of a dock while fighting the 'Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.' Public brawling between your team member 'Multiple Man' and, well, apparently himself. Flagrant-"
"Okay, you can stop there," Alex said, closing his eyes and putting his hand up to signal to the man to stop. He'd tried to be a good leader. He really had. But part of being a good leader was keeping your team in line. Granted, that wasn't particularly easy with this group. But that wasn't an excuse. He rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers while he thought. Another part of being a good leader is sticking up for your team, even when they do something the superiors think is wrong.
"We're not perfect," he finally said, meeting the man's eyes again. "But no one is, and I'd say we're about as close as you're going to find to being a team that works perfectly together. Our team member, Strong Guy, had been poisoned during that bomb thing, and yet he still continued to fight. And if he hadn't intervened when that four-armed freak started tearing through D.C., you'd probably have a lot more on your hands than one destroyed monument. Madrox may not be the most serious of people, but he keeps our spirits up and is remarkably useful when we need sheer manpower on our side. And the dock was a small price to pay to prevent the Brotherhood from recruiting wayward Genoshans into their ranks. Or would you rather have a mutant army at your doorstep?
"We've fought together, bled together, and very nearly died together. Somehow, we've pulled our way out. Despite having not worked together for very long, we each understand how the others work, and we don't get in each other's way out there. If you can find another team who can do that in their first fight together, like we did, then I've got some property in Arizona to sell you." There. He felt a little self-righteous, but that didn't bother him that much. He stood up and walked a little away from the table so that Val and the Senator could talk. They chatted for a bit, Val being very serious, and it gave Alex some time to think.
The first thing he thought of was, "Why the heck did so many evil organizations have such stupid names?" Hell's Belle's, the Nasty Boys, The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The second thing he thought, right after that, was, "And why do all good mutant organizations have an X in their name?"
Then he brought himself back on track. He thought about what could happen, about how the team could be disbanded if this Senator thought they were wasting taxpayer's money. Were they? Could the Washington Monument really just be written off as "collateral damage?" Well, it didn't actually look anything like George Washington. Maybe now they had an excuse to give him a statue, like Lincoln. Lord knows the man deserved it.
If worse came to worse, he'd sacrifice himself for the team. He'd claim that all their problems lay with him and he should be replaced as team leader. Is that what Scott would do? Or would he have fought harder?
He supposed that was the trouble with living in shadows: it was hard to see clearly. He had to think for himself. What would Alex do? Well, he supposed he had already done it. But there was probably more he could do. Too late to do it, now.
The Senator walked up to him, his papers back in his briefcase, and offered his hand, without really saying a word. Alex took it, and shook it firmly, before the Senator left.
"How do you think it went?" he asked Val. She had worn a blue tailored suit that looked good on her. Probably wore it because of that.
"Could have gone worse. We'll know in about three to four months."
"Months?" Alex narrowed his brows, confused and a little bit miffed. He didn't really want to wait that long to find out if he needed to start finding a new place to live.
"Well, yeah, they have to discuss it in Congress. I think they'll come around, though, and keep funding the program." She walked over to the fridge, and got out a bottle of water, taking a quick swig before continuing, "Don't sweat it. You're not a politician or a bureaucrat. I am, though, and I want this team to keep going. I'll handle it."
Alex didn't really like that answer, either, but he couldn't argue with it. It seemed as though, once again, someone else was going to have to clean up his mess. He sat on the edge of the table he'd been sitting at earlier, wondering what had been going through the Senator's mind. Had he seen a leader? Or had he seen someone who was bumbling along trying?
Did Alex see himself as a leader? Not really. Maybe that made him better for the job. He didn't know. He just knew that if he screwed up, even once, he probably wouldn't get a second chance.
If this was how Scott felt all the time, it was no wonder he looked like he'd just swallowed a whole lemon.
The door closed behind him, indicating that Val had left or someone had come in. He turned around to find himself alone in an empty room. It was quiet at the X-Factor headquarters. Oppressively quiet.
He wished it would end.
