xp_logs | Miles & Scott, backdated to July 17

Scott calls down Miles after his loss against his uncle to lay down the law, and also to offer Miles an opportunity to grow.

The injuries Prowler had beaten into Miles were taking their sweet time to recover. Miles had never been hurt like this before. But then again, he'd never encountered anyone like Prowler before, either. All he wanted to do now was curl up in bed under every sheet and blanket he had and disappear from the world for a day or two. He was just about to faceplant onto his bed when Cassandra Pentaghast sighed disgustedly from his phone; his text message notification sound. Scott Summers. Crap. He could only imagine what he wanted.

Miles at least had the sense to change into a new set of clothes before he made his way down to the X-leader's office. It wouldn't do to show up in the exact same clothing he'd worn when he left a couple of days prior. When he arrived, he sighed, steeled himself, and knocked on the door.

Scott glanced up at the door distractedly, "Come on in," he called in a friendly voice as he placed hte paper in his hand down on his desk. It was rare he got a visitor without forcing them to come in, but it was always something interesting.

"Hi. You wanted to see me?" Miles asked as he stepped inside, waving his phone that displayed the text. It was summer break and he was still being called in to the principal's office. What would his mother say? Actually, he didn't want to know that, given the circumstances. He wouldn't be able to handle the avalanche of guilt she'd crush him with.

"Ah Miles," Scott reached to his inbox and pulled out a folder he'd prepared earlier. "Come on in and take a seat," the X-man gestured towards one of the seats in front of his desk, he only ever had to use them when people were in trouble, normally he used the more comfortable couch in the back corner, but this was gonna be one of those kind of meetings

Miles could have sworn he felt his spider-sense ping when he sat down, but maybe that was just his own anxiety. He couldn't possibly be in any real danger. Still, he glanced around the room nervously. "Um, so, what's up?"

"I think that's the question I should be asking you," Scott replied looking sternly at Miles from across the desk, "you look like something the cat dragged through a wrangler several times."

"Oh, you know, summer vacation, it's party time. Just been having late nights. You know, partying. Because I'm a partier. Woo."

"Mmhmm," Scott leaned back and gestured at the folder in front of him, "I was just reading the report about...your party. Would you like to try that again?"

Report? Who could have reported anything? Matt and Warren wouldn't have. Maybe it was Jean or one of Warren's X-whatever colleagues. Crap. Miles looked away from Scott. "Warren asked us for help," he eventually answered. "It just didn't go as we planned. We're all okay, though. Mostly. Nothing serious."

Scott arched and eyebrow, "Nothing serious?" his eyes traveled up and down taking in Miles's bruises. "You don't look like it was nothing serious Miles, and neither did Dr Grey when I saw her. It looked like the exact opposite, people don't end up like this without some major problems cropping up." He gestured at the paper, "I've read what other people have had to say, but what do you have to say about it?"

"First of all, what happened to Doctor Grey had nothing to do with us," Miles insisted, holding up his hands defensively. "I don't know who attacked her but she wasn't with us. But fine, okay, look. Warren asked me and Spider-Man for help with the thefts that were happening at his company. He did the math and thought someone would break in on Wednesday and he was right. And the thief handed our butts to us. He was strong and fast and had all sort of Batman toys. Aaaaand he's my uncle," he finished quickly, hoping that Scott would be too focused on the rest of the story to pay attention to that part.

"So you uncle attacked you when the three of you decided to stake out a potential crime scene where you were pretty sure a break in would happen, completely disregarding the detective firm Warren is a member of, or the paramilitary trained team who are based out of the mansion and who would have been happy to help out one of our friends preventing a crime from happening in his company. And what was the plan after that Miles? If you had managed to apprehend your uncle what would you have done with him? Beaten him up and taken him to a police station? Unless you were willing to step forward and unmask yourselves the arrest wouldn't have held up in court. Not to mentioned you lied to us, you said you were going to stay at your parent's house when you went into the city. Your parents entrusted your safety to us but how can we truthfully tell them you're safe here if we can't believe you when you tell us where you are?"

"Four of us, actually," Miles guiltily corrected him. "Daredevil – the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, you know? From the Daily Bugle? – he was there, too, to help us. And I didn't know the Prowler was my uncle until after! I'd never even heard of the Prowler before that. And I don't know. Beating up criminals and letting the police take it from there usually works." As far as he knew. Now that Miles thought about it, he had never followed up with anyone he'd helped to apprehend. Were they escaping their charges?

He shook his head, more to clear the cobwebs than to disagree with Scott who, as much as Miles hated to admit it, wasn't wrong. Maybe not right but also not wrong. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. But this wasn't an X-thing. Warren asked me and Spider-Man for help and it's not like we're new at this. And you know we're already lying to my parents about the school, anyway, so."

"If you keep lying to everyone who tries to look after you then things are gonna get so twisted that when you need them no one will be there," Scott pointed out. "I know that you were swinging around the city long before you came to the mansion, but so have we," he noted wryly. "Everything you're doing now, I bet you 5 people here have done before, probably more if I'm honest. You guys wanted to help Warren and make a difference or helping a friend are good things. But there are better ways to do it you know." He gave Miles a smile. "You know how it goes, you're one of us now so might as well make used of the number of people who have been running surveillance operations all their life, or you know make sure some back up is in place if things have the potential to go sour. Most of us would enjoy a chance to stretch our legs and spend the night crawling around the city. Dealing with your common thugs would be a nice change from handling our normal helping of super-powered maniacs."

"Isn't this a little below your pay grade, though? Like, as far as we knew, it wasn't Magneto or the guy who tried to take over New York. But, whatever. I'm not an X-Man like you. I'm not part of the team. The only team I have is the other Spider-Man. I didn't know what else I was supposed to do, so, you know, we did what we always did."

Scott shook his head, "You're wrong there Miles, you are a part of a team, you have everyone else in Generation X to turn to if you wanted help. Or us, you may not be an X-Man but you're a part of this community so of course we'd help. It doesn't matter if it's Magneto or just someone to come with you for moral support, that's what we do, we watch out for one another."

"I'll keep it in mind next time I have to solve a case of corporate espionage," Miles offered contritely, squirming a little in his seat. He hated being under a microscope like this. "Sooooo now what?"

Scott leaned back in his chair and crossed his arm, "That's entirely up to you at this point," he allowed, "I'm pretty sure you're not gonna stop," Scott hadn't despite many worse situations, "So it's a matter of where you want to go from here and how you want to do it. I think you've learned a lot about your limits and the kind of situations you can handle by yourself and those you can't."

"Damn right I'm not stopping," Miles confirmed before slapping a hand over his mouth in embarrassment. "I mean, look," he continued, lowering his hand. "Being Spider-Man is important to me and to the city. All I want is to be better to the point where I'm not needed and important anymore, know what I mean? And some things I'm learning in Gen X are helping, so, you know, I'm trying."

"Miles, take it from someone who has been doing the hero thing for over 20 years. there is never gonna be a time you're not needed. The problems are never gonna go away, and if you let yourself you'll always be out that door to deal with them. And then you'll run into people like your uncle who you are not prepared to face, or even people like me or the X-men. The longer you do this the more people like that you're gonna run into, and you guys were lucky it didn't go any worse. If you're gonna keep doing this then you guys need to be ready to deal with powered and trained opponents as well as the normal thugs you find in the city."

"So what're you saying? How'm I supposed to get better besides Gen X and just experience?"

"We can set up extra classes for you to help you learn to fight, but time and experience are the biggest factors there," Scott allowed, "The most important thing you can do is think, think about hte scenarios you're in think about what will happen next about what could happen. Preparation is 9/10ths of every fight. With the right plan, any situation is over before it began."

That actually sounded pretty amazing, and any dismay Miles might have felt when he was called down here evaporated. "So basically you're going to give me extra intense training? I can live with that."

"Come back and tell me that in a month," Scott replied with the trademark Summer's smirk. Maybe Logan would be free to take on the extra training sessions, that should work out perfectly.