Manhattan & South Dakota, Wednesday Fandom Time
"We should try to separate the Pride's kids before they drop off the radar again," the SHIELD agent said from the reinforced tower where a small team watched over monitors showing a group of teenagers facing off against Skrulls. "The witch is getting scary."
"Too scary," her colleague answered in amused disbelief. "She might turn you into a toad for interfering. Are you really worrying about this right now?"
"As long as they aren't letting me do anything real about what's going on out there, may as well be productive on a long-term project," she nodded, and flicked open her dossier again. "The Skrull and the Dean girl are too attached, Chase Stein isn't right for what I have in mind, Molly Hayes has gotten away too many times. I have no idea who her little friend with the cape is. But the cyborg..."
"He'd probably be easiest," the man agreed. "But there's no time to talk, and I sure don't think you're going to get anywhere with -- what is that, a glossy brochure from that weird school in Maryland?"
She shrugged. "Hey, if by some weird chance he bites it's a feather in my cap. If he doesn't, no harm done. Either way, we're watching."
****
"So the next time we want a dramatic exit," Nico said, as the group filed into the vacation cottage they'd not-quite-legally borrowed for the night, "let's make sure our getaway vehicle doesn't pop a spring in the middle of the mountains."
"Blame Tommy," Chase said, shifting from foot to foot as he barred the door behind them. "I checked Leapfrog over before we left 1907. We'd have been fine to get back to L.A. without the side trip." And there Molly and Klara were getting a distinct side-eye. "Now we have to wait for Radio Shack to open to buy the wires to hook her up again."
"Like we had so much fun waiting up here for you guys to finish fighting the evil Xavins," Molly put in, with a pout. "It so wasn't -- Vic, how come you're reading and not listening?"
Victor glanced up sheepishly from his chair, holding up the glossy brochure he'd taken from New York. "Some lady handed it to me before we left the city," he explained. "High school summer program. They'll take anybody who registers before the weekend. I think somebody's trying to get us back to school." And somehow he didn't think that was entirely a bad idea, and that showed in his tone.
"Gross," Molly said, wrinkling her nose. "Just throw it out. Probably somebody wants to kidnap me, again."
Victor huffed out half a chuckle. "It's a new one. Some little place in Maryland. It's not run by any team I've ever heard of. Says their big thing is special situations and helping people use unique abilities."
Which was … tempting. Victor had learned what he could do by doing it; even almost a year after joining the team, he still didn't know what exactly Ultron had programmed into him. If somebody could just tell him how it all worked, it would save him a lot of trial and error during fights.
"Still stuuuuuuupid," Molly sang out, and wandered over to talk to Klara about some project that Victor was almost certain involved code names or costumes somehow.
A little later, after some more studying of the brochure, Victor drew a deep breath, glanced at the group, and said -- "Maybe that summer thing isn't such a horrible idea. For me, anyhow." Not just because of the powers thing, but because he knew his head wasn't really on straight, and a month or two on his own suddenly seemed very appealing. And then there was something else. "Anyhow, it's free, and we've been basically broke for, like, months. One less mouth to feed wouldn't hurt."
Mentioning it out loud meant the bickering shifted from being about whose fault it was Leapfrog wasn't leaping to being about the pros and cons of formal education, the likelihood anything that turned up mysteriously was automatically a trap, and how Victor wasn't allowed to leave Chase alone with the girls and Xavin when it was already this hard to watch an entire game on TV.
Finally, after Xavin suggested that perhaps Victor thought it was a good idea because he'd caught a computer virus and the others seemed to be taking the idea at least halfway seriously --
"Forget it," Victor muttered, then added more loudly. "You guys have points, okay? I'm not going. Pretend I never mentioned it." And then he turned on his laptop, put on his headphones, and prepared to play some mindless zombie-shooting game until he felt like he could be civil again.
It had gotten dark outside and everyone else had wandered back into the bedrooms when Nico put her hand on the back of Victor's neck.
He managed not to jump too much before paused his game and yanked his headphones back around his neck so he could hear her. "Do you have to sneak up on me?"
"No, but it was kind of funny," Nico said, and twisted a strand of hair back into her bun. "Look, I was thinking a lot, and I just wanted to say -- if you want to do the school thing, I can't stop you."
"Thanks, but I knew that," Victor said, then shook his head to snap himself out of the sullen patch. "Wait. It's not like I'm desperate to get back to homework? But with everything else that's going on … I don't know. Seemed like getting away wouldn't suck." He paused, thought about it, and added, "Anyhow, I could come back if you needed me."
She twisted her lips in a way that was almost a smile. "Because when crap goes down, the bad guys will press the pause button until you can make it back from across the country?"
Victor shrugged helplessly, unable to really argue on that point. "Nico..."
"I still say it's insane and probably a trap," she warned briskly. "And don't expect us to come running to help if you end up strapped to a table in some lab for reprogramming. But I get it, I do. We all do crazy things when we're grieving." She shrugged lightly. "You really loved Lillie. Maybe you just need a break, and going to some weird summer school's way better than some of the other ways we've coped."
"It's not about her," Victor said defensively. "There's money. And my powers. And --" He could tell from the look on Nico's face that she wasn't buying it at all. "So maybe it's a little about her, okay. It doesn't mean I didn't love you. It's just … different."
Nico picked an invisible piece of lint off her tank top as a way of avoiding eye contact. "You're still a toaster, she's still a Victorian ho, and I still don't think we'll get anywhere talking about it. But if you want my blessing for the stupid school plan, you have it. Whatever it's worth."
"Thanks," Victor exhaled, and smiled. "Will you help me convince everybody else?"
"If you manage not to piss me off again before you have to go, yes." She scooted around the chair to sit beside him. "Could you at least show me their website?"
Victor had already hacked his way into wireless access and explored every cranny of the school's Internet presence, so he just clicked to refresh the tab. "Ahead of you. Look. Fandom High. Totally not evil."
"We'll see about that."
[OOC: NFB, NFI, etc.]