Angelo & Fred

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Angelo and Fred have a long, productive discussion




Fred had thought about going for a quick drive earlier, but the large wreckage outside the garage quashed those notions. But not to wonder about it, he thought, as he tried to find something to keep him occupied. He'd completed all of his assignments for the week, which wasn't odd: Fred usually liked to get work out of the way quickly. He wasn't hungry, so there was no point in the kitchen. Julian was nowhere to be found...


Fred never recalled being at such a loss due to social inactivity before coming to the Institute. He hadn't been here long, but this place had already started to change him.

Going to the smoking porch, which had become a second home to the chainsmoking mutant, Fred lit a cigarette and looked across the grounds, blowing smoke up into the air. Maybe something would come to him.

Or he'd take a nap. Either seemed acceptable to Fred.

The door opened and closed behind him, and a lighter clicked before anyone spoke. "Hey. You're the new kid, right? Fred? I'm Angelo."


Fred jumped a little, having not heard Angelo's entrance "Whoah! Uh, hey. Yea, I'm Fred. Pleasure to meet you Angelo," he said, and looked at the young gray mutant. Other than Lil, he hadn't met another smoker on campus, and didn't mind the company. He was used to hanging out in places where cigarettes were part of the usual dynamic.

"Didn't mean to startle you", he said with a grin. "How're you settlin' into the place?"

Fred smiled, "Not bad. Roomate's cool. Classes are...schoolish." Fred dragged off his cigarette again, "So, I assume you've been here awhile then?"

"Five an' a half years an' countin", Angelo told him. "Showed up when I was seventeen an' never looked back. Much."

"Five years? Yeesh, I can't even think about that," Fred said. He took a moment and then looked around, as if worried someone would overhear his next statement, "Does that mean your a, ah...an X-Man?"

"You heard about that already, huh?" He drew on his cigarette, then nodded. "Yeah, I am. But not everybody around here is, even from the old-timers."

"I'd just caught bits and pieces of conversations, put two n' two together..." Fred blew smoke out his nose, "I didn't want to ask. Didn't want to ask. Didn't know if I was supposed to know or not. So, ah, was are they? I mean what are you? Wait, I mean..." Fred sighed and gathered his thoughts for a moment, "What are the X-Men?"

"It's not really a secret. Well, it's kind of an open secret in the mansion an' need to know outside... I guess you could call us kind of an unofficial mutant troubleshootin' team."

Fred furrowed his brows a little, "I'd heard of stuff going down in New York and Houston and stuff but...I never knew there was, like a mutant group out there or anything..."

"At your service", Angelo said with an ironic tip of his head. "I'd say we try to keep it low-profile, but that gets kind of difficult sometimes."

"Yeah, I'd imagine. So...what's it like? I mean, doing it?" Fred hadn't meant to pry, but it was something that interested him very much so. It was a concept new to him, something that sounded infinitely more appealing than school work or some 9 to 5...

"Different every time", was the best Angelo could offer at first. "I mean... sometimes it's really just routine, like pickin' up a new student or runnin' security for events, but we go as team on those just in case. Lot of the time it's dangerous. Sometimes it's even fun."

Fred smiled. He liked this Angelo, and his casual attitude. It was different, more at ease than some of the others he'd met. "So what's your
story? What brought you here?"

"Same as a lot of people here, when you come right down to it. I manifested, it went south, I ran away. Lived rough for awhile, then Scott found me an' brought me here." He could be casual about it now, with so much water under the bridge.

"And you're happy here? Happy, you know, with everything?" Fred nodded. It felt good, that he heard someone who'd gone through similar things and sounded like they'd geniuinely gotten over it. Fred reached into his coat at, in patented Fred Dukes Greeting style, produced two large Red Bull cans from his pocket, "Thirsty?"

"Most of the time, I really am." He held out a hand to receive a can. "Hey, thanks. Never turn down energy drinks, that's my rule."

Fred handed Angelo one of the cans, and popped the other one open. He took a long gulp off of his, and turned back to the older mutant, "I gotta tell ya. I'm kinda going a little stir crazy here. I mean, I know it's big and everything, but that's one of the problems. I'm not used to living somewhere like this. I keep wanting to go into town and see what's going on there, but it doesn't seem like there's much to do..."

"Not all that much in Salem Center", Angelo agreed. "But there's buses into the city, if you wanted. Or else there's gettin' a lift from someone, people go in a lot."

Fred nodded a little, "I have a car, but I haven't ever really spent this much time up north, so I don't know the area all that well," and shrugged, "So, uh, what's your power?" he said. God, that still sounded weird to say...

"Nothin' flashy, but I've been told it's kind of cool", he said with a grin, then stretched his fingertips out to latch onto the edge of the roof.

Fred chuckled as the finger hit the roof, "Hah! They didn't lie; that is cool," he looked back to Angelo, and patted his large stomach, "I'm just, ah, big. And really hard to hurt,"

"Yeah?" He looked interested. "Like, can't be cut or all the way invulnerable?"

Fred looked puzzled, "Dunno. Been shot before and that didn't do anything, other freak me out some. Got hit by a car and didn't move, though that was...different.."

"Sounds like you're all the way invulnerable, then. An' then some, if bein' hit by a car didn't even move you..."

Fred twitched a little, "Well, that has to do with this...other thing I can do." Fred pointed to the ground, "I can kinda, like, 'Think Down', you know? Like think about me and the ground at the same time and...when I do? I don't move if I don't wanna" Fred sighed and inhaled from his slow burning cigarette, "I don't do it much. It feels...weird..."

"So you don't like doin' it", Angelo finished. "But it sounds like a useful thing t'have, if you need it. Might be worth practisin'."

"I guess but..." Fred sighed, "It isn't the most pleasant thing in the world for me, is all..."

"Well, no one's gonna force you." He shrugged slightly. "Not if you don't want to."

Fred put up his hand "It's not that I don't want to, just...y'know, baby steps," he decided it'd be best to change subjects, "So, what's Mr. Xavier like for real? I talked to him a little when I got here..."

"He's really somethin'", Angelo said honestly. "Lot of us here owe him a whole lot, for lettin' us stay."

"Yea, when I asked him about costs, he sorta looked at me like he wanted to laugh or something," Fred smiled broadly at the memory. It went without saying his brief experience with Charles was extremely positive, "So, it's no bull or anything? I mean, I've heard of Good Samaritans, but this guy really has put all these people up for nothing?"

"No bull", he assured the younger boy. "Everyone here... I mean, some of us stayed to work for him, after we finished school, but it's not somethin' compulsory. Like, he'll let anyone stay as long as they need to."

Fred blinked. He'd figured there was a catch or something, but it didn't seem there was. He could see how a guy like Xavier could inspire such loyalty, though. "Work for him? Like in the X-Men?"

"Not just that. Some people don't do that, an' even for those that do, it's kind of a side job. Some of us teach, some do admin, Kyle's the go-to guy for maintenance stuff... that kind of work."

Fred nodded and dragged off his smoke, "That's cool...Do you, you know, do anything like that? I mean, teach or anything?"

"Self-defence", Angelo told him. "Me an' Callisto, so we can vary it up a bit. You'll be in the class, everybody is."

Fred looked back to Angelo, "Callisto? Don't think I met her yet..."

"Yeah, she doesn't come out much." He paused for another drag on his cigarette. "Garage's probably your best bet. She was the staff mechanic before she took on the teachin'."


"Gotcha," Fred said, and lit another cigarette, "I need someone to take a look at my car anyway. I ran it pretty hard getting up here..."


"Good reason t'talk to her", Angelo said equably.


"Cool...so, self-defense? That's gotta get...painful," Fred winced. Angelo carried himself well, like a man who knew what a fight entailed, and he could see how his power would lend itself well to a fight.


"Can do", he said with a crooked grin. "The kids are pretty quick learners, though, an' I'm not always fightin' them myself. I like the job."


"I guess I should sign up or whatever. I, ah...I don't know how much a class like that would help me," Fred said, and patted his stomach again.


"You never know what you're gonna come up against", Angelo told him seriously. "Part of what we try to teach is not to rely on powers too much. There's too many ways they could get taken away."


"Taken away?" Fred perked up a little more than was probably appropriate, "I thought these things were, like, for good..."


"Sure, in the natural course of things they are. But... there's ways." His brows drew together for just a moment, something dark in his eyes, but then it was gone. "Machines, an' I know at least one person whose powers do it. It's not all it's cracked up to be."


"Yeah. Right. Course," Fred said, and puffed some smoke into the air. He wasn't sure how he felt about his powers just yet, but not having them...would have its benefits...


"If you want t'know about it, I can give you a few names to talk to about inhibitors", he offered. "But I really don't recommend it, if your powers don't actually hurt you."


Fred looked around for a moment and says to Angelo, in a hushed tone, "They...uh...the kind of do,"


"...oh." His mouth quirked, understanding, and he nodded. "Still, there might be better ways. Inhibitors aren't a thing you can wear for too long, there's side effects... my boss's wife's a doctor, specialises in mutation. Or there's Doc Grey."


Fred sighed, "I get it and, uh, I don't wanna seem like a traitor or anything..." and closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he looked like a man much older than seventeen,"I just...I'm always in pain, you know? This dull pain...it gets worse when I lift something heavy or think down or take a hit..." Fred stopped himself. He didn't bemoan like this, and certainly didn't want to start now, "I know schooling is important, but...I just don't know what to do about how I feel all the time..."


"Fred..." He looked at the younger man with real compassion. "It's not about bein' a traitor. Some people luck out with their mutations, some people really don't. But talk to Doc Grey. You could get schoolin' anywhere... it's the powers help you need to be here for."


Fred smiled sadly and threw away his cigarette, and touched Angelo on the shoulder, "Thanks, Angelo. I'll go see what I can do about talking to her." Fred regarded the older man warmly and nodded his head once, "Thanks for the talk. I'm gonna go into town and catch a movie this weekend. You interested?"


"Depends what it is", he said with a grin. "But chances are pretty good, yeah. I'll even drive."


Fred laughed as he opened the door, "Sounds good. I don't think my car'll really be going anywhere any time soon,"