What Am I Doing Here?: Rage

[x-cannonball.livejournal.com]

After church Sam and his family run into an unexpected - and unpleasant - surprise. Things heat up and Sam does something he regrets.


While he was a religious man, Sam would've been lying if he'd said he wasn't glad to get out of church. It had been a pleasant enough service, and even the sermon had been done well enough to his liking, but it had been longer than he'd remembered. That, combined with hotter than normal weather, having to dress up in his Sunday best for the first time in awhile, and the broken air conditioning in the building had made for an uncomfortable experience. Still, he couldn't have walked out on church with his mama; Sam was fairly certain he'd face a much hotter fate for even contemplating such a thing, not to mention his mama's reprisal.

Holding the door open for his family and fellow parishioners, he squinted at a crowd of people gathered at the foot of the church stairs. They had been some of the first persons to leave the building - ever since he was old enough to remember the Guthrie clan, being as large as it was, had always preferred to take up space in the rear of the church rather than take up all the premium space up front - so he was perplexed as to the source of all the commotion. As he let someone else hold onto the door in order to walk along with his family he noticed the signs the people were holding. Various anti-mutant slogans were plastered all over them - "Mutants Are An abomination!", "God Hates Mutants", and "Mutants = Satan's Soldiers" were a few Sam had noticed before averting his eyes from them. A few police officers stood nearby to make sure things didn't get out of hand but no one seemed to be inclined to stop the demonstration from taking place.

"Come on, mama, let's just go quickly." He didn't want to have his family exposed to these idiots, even if part of him felt like giving them a good piece of his mind. There was a time and a place for everything, however, and he didn't want to upset his mother or his siblings. So he tugged on Mrs. Guthrie's arm, trying to quietly disappear into the crowd and off to the side.

Making a mental check of where her children were, Mrs. Guthrie pursed her lips. "This is the Lord's day," she stated, "Disruptin' it with hate ain't how you win friends and influence people!"

"We doing what the Lord wills - telling the world that these abominations are the devil's work. They ain't right, it is unnatural." Reed stepped through the crowd of his fellow men and women. "Anyone that protects these demons will burn in hell as they are no better than the creatures they hold so dear." He turned to look at Mrs. Guthrie. "We are not here to win friends. We are here to tell the truth of these mutants should be gone from this world before their corruption spreads. They will be the end of us all!"

A woman, her hands gripped tight around the base of a sign proclaiming "The Lord Will Strike Down Mutants", was close on Reed's heels. She wore a plain Sunday dress, and her blonde hair was tied back in a simple ponytail. "You tell 'em, Wish!" she crowed. With one hand, she reached down into a small purse, and pulled out a leaflet, thrusting it past Reed and right into Sam's face, stopping just shy of his nose.

Sam was about to take a step towards the man, eyeing him as the man turned to face his mother, but he stopped short when the woman produced her leaflet. Not wanting to touch the propaganda, he just rolled his eyes and stepped to one side, which put him closer to Reed. "Kindly do not put your hateful agenda in my face, ma'am." He looked back at his mother to make sure she was ok.

"Luke 6:37, 'Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven,'" Mrs. Guthrie quoted evenly. It was a variation on the more familiar 'judge not' quote from Matthew. "Excuse me now, my family and I are leaving," they had to get through these people to the suburban she drove though.

Looking over at Mrs. Guthrie, "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them.. Genius 1:27" Reed shot back at her. "Mankind not freaks like your son here." He turned towards Sam, "You should have stayed away Guthrie. Your kind don't belong here..." Sizing the man up.

He just shook his head, not turning away from Reed. "Y'got it all wrong, son. I pity you and your kind, I really do. How can you live with yourselves, with so much hate in your hearts?" There was more than pity to it as well, an anger that Sam fought to hide, but his teeth were starting to grind a little and his blood, while not boiling, was definitely heated by the sight of these people and the sound of their words.

"Psalm 11:5. The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked." The woman was quick with a Bible quotation of her own to throw at Sam and his mother.

"One John 4:20," she knew her bible, "If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.' Do not quote a book at me that you do know understand," she had no tolerance for this. "Sam, let's go."

Even in the tense situation, Sam couldn't help but grin a little at the depth of his mother's knowledge. No one messed with mama. He let her and his siblings go ahead of them, staying behind and between them and Reed until they passed. Once they'd headed for the parking lot he turned to the man one last time. "Don't you or anyone like you ever approach me or my family again, y'hear?" He'd be leaving to go back to Xavier's soon enough and he hated the thought of those people accosting his family in his absence.

Reed laughed, "Here that boys and girls, the freak pities me." He turned serious and faced Sam again, "And how can you live with yourself knowing what you are?" He then spit at Sam's feet. "You are a disgrace that is what you are." Hearing the treat only brought a smile to his face, "Or you' do what? This is a free country and we can protest where ever we want too. And there isn't a damn thing you can do about it mama's boy."

Clenching his fists, Sam took a deep breath and closed his eyes before saying anything or even moving. After a few heartbeats he opened his eyes again and made eye contact with Reed. "Just you try something and you'll see exactly what I can do about it, boy." The whole calming down thing wasn't working so he figured he'd best extract himself from the situation, though he had to pause to look down and avoid walking wherever that monster had spat because ew.

"Yea that is right walk away with your whore mother. You think you can protect them? You can't! The will of God will be done and there will be no one there to stop me or anyone else! Not even you."

The thinly veiled threat against his mother - along with the offensive adjective with which he described her - was too much. Sam knew he shouldn't do what he was going to do even as he pulled back his arm, but he made no effort to stop his fist from plowing straight into Reed's face. The impact felt fantastic but as soon as it happened he knew he'd made a mistake, especially when he turned to face the crowd and remembered the police officers he'd previously seen start to come towards him. "...dammit."

Pain flooded his sense as he took a step back and put his hands up to his nose. The bleeding already started and his nose was probably broken. Looking up at Guthrie with hate in his eyes but he smirked, "You shouldn't had done that Guthrie...you'll pay for that." But he stepped aside to allow the officers to do their business.

"Samuel Guthrie!" adult or not, mutant or not, he was still her child and when he did something she did not approve of she had no problem taking him over her knee! Taking his arm firmly, she hauled him away, chastising him for his actions. "I raised you better than that! Maybe that's how you solve problems in your life, but that's not how we do things here, especially when there are bigots around! We do not stoop to their level!" she was outraged at the entire situation...but she was a little pleased that that hatemonger got what he deserved.

Before Sam could reply to either of them the police officers reached him. One of them, a man whose nametag read 'Johnson,' started reading him his rights while the other man broke out the handcuffs and signaled for Sam to hold out his arms. With his mouth hanging open, he realized it was probably for the best not to say anything further, so he put his hands out and gave his mother an apologetic shrug. It looked like he might be staying home a little longer than he'd anticipated.