backdated log: Matt, Warren & Scott

[x-daredevil.livejournal.com]

Backdated to July 26, post Patent Pending.

Scott, Matt and Warren discuss the trio's vigilantism, Miles being underage and how they could have handled everything better. It has mixed results.



The door gave an almost ominous thump as Scott's clenched fist fell down onto it once, and then once again. "How long did you say he had been holed up in here?" he asked Matt in a flat voice." Ever since he'd heard of their...misadventure Scott hadn't quite known what to think of these two.

Matt shrugged, "Since the other day," he replied flatly. He could hear Warren inside, but he wasn't moving to get the door despite the doorman giving then access to the penthouse. He knew they were there, too. They wouldn't've gotten this far without Warren's knowledge and permission.

Reaching into the satchel he used as a briefcase, Matt pulled out a pen, snapping the metal clip off, then expertly picking the lock and opening the door. There was little point in hiding things now. "Get your ass out of bed, Warren!"

Scott glanced around, he knew the Mansion was technically Charles' home and therefor more spacious than this penthouse but he had always thought of the Mansion as a communal home. which made the size of the penthouse even more impressive. "Please tell me he's not actually still in bed," the X-man muttered.

"I'm not," Warren called out as he entered the front. Frowning, he shook his head. "You couldn't have waited for me to answer the door?"‎ He wasn't expecting an answer to it. It was nice to see Matt. Scott on the other hand....well, he'd been avoiding the man, truth be told. He was too old to get a lecture.

He motioned to them to follow him, and he led them into his study. "You're lucky my housekeeper is out on errands, or else you would have given her a heart attack."

"You were in the back and haven't been very...communicative," Matt pointed out, unapologetic about technically breaking in. He wasn't thrilled about Scott being there either, but it had been unavoidable and he had more riding on things at Xavier's than Warren did since his brother lived there now. He needed to keep the peace at least somewhat.

"And have been avoiding the mansion recently it seems. It makes it hard to talk to you without hunting you down at your apartment here," Scott pointed out. He'd been wanting to talk to Warren since Jess had told him what happened but the man had not come ot the mansion. "I aplogoize for making Matt bring me here, but we needed to talk. All of us."

Warren cocked an eyebrow. So here came the lecture. Sitting down in his desk chair, he sprawled out and motioned to Scott, looking every bit the petulant child. ‎"At your leisure."

"Well you probably knew this was coming and have thought about what you were going to say so," Scott sat in his chair upright glancing coldly at Matt and Warren, "perhaps you two would like to tell me what on earth you were thinking and what made you think any of this was a good idea?"

"You'll need to be more specific," Matt replied. He was in lawyer-mode and while he might be a junior lawyer at Worthington Industries, he had been top of his class. He took a seat, looking calmly at the other man, unperturbed. He was more worried about Warren, really.

"Ok then," Scott favoured Matt with a cold look, "How about running off into a situation you knew barely anything about without planning out the engagement at all. Disregarding all your friends and colleagues who could have helped you and stopped yourselves from getting beaten up and loosing the man you were after. And lets not forget that as part of this situation Dr Grey was attacked and hurt. And of course," if looks could kill the look Scott gave the two others would have reduced them to a pile of ash, "And there is Miles, you knowingly took a 15 year old into a dangerous situation. What on earth were you two thinking?"

"That said 15 year old has more skills than you give him credit for," Warren responded dryly. "I'll agree with the whole 'there is no I in team' bullshit, but I'm not going to have you put me down for Miles' involvement. He may be your student, but he's my friend. And as for Jean," he added, making apoint to use her givne name, "she's an adult. She could have said no to helping, and I wouldn't have held it against her. ‎Her being attacked had nothing to do with the outing. That...robot...cyborg...assassin... thing wanted her regardless. What if it had happened during school hours? Would you have shoved all the kids to the basement, even though they could help?"

Matt sat oblivious to Scott's glares. He knew the man was giving them, he just didn't care and couldn't see them anyways. "What makes you more angry?" He asked, voice calm, "That we chose to trust Miles over you or that we're not wearing X's all over our suits when we go out and protect all people, not just mutants?"

Scott cocked his head, "Neither," he replied honestly, "Honestly you barely even know me Matt so that's not really a fair comparison there is no way you could trust me over Miles who you've known much longer." Scott pointed out. "Although if you think that all we do is protect mutants then you really don't know anything about what we do despite all the time you've spent at the mansion. Perhaps you should try understanding what we do before you cast aspersions on it. And Miles may be more skilled than anyone else his age but he's still a 15 year old boy. If it had happened during school then I would gladly let the students help. They've done it before and I have no doubt they'd do it again. But," Scott's voice turned frozen, "I would never ever purposefully put a student, especially one who looks upto me the way Miles looks up to you in danger. You knew the situations wasn't safe but you purposefully put him in danger anyway."

"Life is dangerous." Warren sighed and gave Scott a surprisingly tired look. He was sick of fighting. "Did I advocate a potentially dangerous situation? Sure. But did I know it was going to be dangerous? No. It was meant to be a stake out, minimal interaction, and four against one. Clearly, the odds were not in our favour, but at no point did we say "Miles -- as the youngest, you go first. You attack first." So before you judge me for putting Miles at risk, I'll have you know that mistakes happen."

"An innocent stakeout that he felt compelled to lie to us and pretend he was going home to stay with his parents when he was actually at Matt's so you could sneak out for the stake out. I know you probably didn't tell him to lie like that but his parents made us responsible for his safety. And you made all of at the mansion liars now. We can't tell Miles' parents that we're doing everything we can to protect their son because we aren't. We all knew that he was out here with you but we thought you'd protect him and stop anything like this from happening. If it had gone the other way, if something had happened to him what could I, could you have said to his parents?" Scott's voice fell, "I've had to see too many children hurt, seen too many loved ones pay too steep a price to ever let it happen again on my watch. I swore to protect the kids at least, but it turns out I can't even do that."

"No, you can't," Matt agreed, "And it's not a realistic expectation, not the way things are or you wouldn't have me giving seminars on how to avoid arrest and what to do if you're arrested while mutant. You are responsible for taking reasonable precautions for his safety, yes. That doesn't mean he won't ignore the rules. And we took every reasonable measure to keep him safe given his levels of experience and ability. I was injured much worse because we were protecting him." Matt did feel bad for Scott, assuming he was talking about M-Day, but they weren't going to wrap the teens up in bubble wrap and cloister them away from the world! "I'm sorry for your losses, but don't punish these kids or yourself for things outside your control," spoken like someone who didn't do the exact same thing.

This was getting ridiculous, Warren thought and was going nowhere. "Look Scott, what exactly is the point here? To yell at us? Done. To make us feel guilty? Already there. To protect Miles? Sure. Or is this just you, upset that something happened and you didn't know about it? Because I like you. Scott. I do. But I want to stop beating around the bush and for you to tell us what your end goal is here today. I have a lot of brooding to do today, and I'd like to get back to it."

"I guess we're done here," Scott agreed as he stood up, "I know that you had the best intentions and did what you thought was right but just try to remember, you're not just The Angel, The Daredevil and Spidermen anymore, you're part of our community. We have people who could have helped you to avoid this, who can help you in the future. Next time something like this comes up come to us and we can help you. That's what we all do."

Warren almost argued that the lecture was not at all efficient but he thought better of that. "Fair enough," he said standing tall. "I don't think I have anything else to say, so if you don't mind,I'd either like to be left in peace." Warren motioned to the door, "or have drinking company. Matt?"

"Drink," Matt agreed, getting up to show Scott the door. He was done with this as well. He knew Scott meant well, but he didn't understand. They were all vigilantes by themselves and had teamed up the way they knew how. It got out of hand, yes, but they weren't precogs and more than that, they had no reason to think they needed additional help or that they would even get it if asked. None of them were X-Men after all. It was easy to pick apart something to do differently after the fact. "Thanks for coming by, Scott."