The Puppeteer - X-Men

Four

They ended up finding a boombox and turned on some music, everyone dancing along to it. Angel ended up flying and Hank took off his shoes and hung from the chandelier. "Haven't done this in a while, huh?" Alex came up to Lily, who was just swaying to the beat. "It's hard to party and relax when you live on the streets" Lily shrugged. "From the looks of it, you haven't either" Lily nudged him.

"What can I say? Aren't a lot of parties in prison" Alex retorted. "Prison? Didn't expect you to be that much of a bad boy" Lily shot back. "Shut up" he shoved her gently and she laughed, taking a swig of beer. Lily jumped up on the table and started dancing, pulling Alex up with her and everyone laughed and cheered.

Alex did a spin and a crack sounded out as the table broke, sending both of them straight onto their asses. Instead of complaining, they both just laughed as took a swig of their respective beers.

"What the hell is going on?!" a woman in a long coat demanded. Everyone stopped immediately: Angel stopped flying, Hank dropped down and Alex and Lily stood up. "Who destroyed the statue? And the table?" Charles asked, defeated. "It was Alex" Hank admitted and Alex glared at him. "And Lily" he continued and Lily flipped him off behind her back.

"No, no, Havok! We call him Havok. And Marionette!" Raven draped an arm across Lily's shoulders but Lily looked fairly guilty. "And I was thinking. You should be Professor X" Raven pointed to Charles. "And you should be Magneto" she pointed to Erik. "Exceptional" Erik remarked dryly, sparing a glance at Lily before walking off with the black-haired woman. "I expected more from you" Charles spoke to Raven before leaving.

Lily walked forwards and stepped out the window. "Charles!" she called, walking after him. "Yes?" he turned around. "Don't be mad at her. It was my idea, the music" Lily fiddled with her hands as she looked down. "I'm not mad, I'm-" he started.

"And don't you dare say you're disappointed! Do you know how much that hurts? For someone you love to tell you they're disappointed in you? It sucks, Charles!" Lily cut him off and Charles blinked in shock at her outburst. "I...I understand more than you'll ever know" Charles said softly before turning around and briskly walking away, leaving Lily feeling even more guilty than before.

She walked back inside, looking upset and Darwin came up to her. "You alright?" he asked softly. "Just feeling like a screw up, nothing unusual" she sighed going to walk past him but he caught her wrist. "Hey, you aren't a screw up, alright? I think you're pretty cool" he smiled and Lily smiled up at him. "Thanks, Darwin" she nodded, before sitting on the couch and taking a sip of beer.

After a few minutes of lounging around and drinking beer, two agents walked up to the window. "Hey, didn't know the circus was in town. Hey, can we see those wings, baby?" he flapped his hands and Lily glared at them. "No? Come on, let's see the foot. There it is. Come on, bigfoot, let's go" the second one added.

"What about the little psycho killer?" he teased before they both randomly hunched over in pain, coughing slightly. Lily regained her composure and withdrew her power, entering both their minds and wiping their memories of her ever hurting them. They both started laughing and walked off and Hank drew the curtains.

"What the hell was that?" Hank asked angrily, glaring at the white-haired girl. "What?" she frowned. "You did that to them, you hurt them!" he threw his hands up and she looked down. "I can't control it, alright" she sighed and Hank shook his head. "You can't go around exploding people's blood cells just because-" he started.

"Just because what? Just because they call me a killer? I started expanding their blood cells the second they called you Bigfoot" Lily scoffed. "So you did mean to do it" Hank glared at her and she looked down. "Oh, bite me" she snarled, slamming her bottle down on the table. "Hank, you can't blame her" Raven defended her.

"How would you like to be called a killer?" Alex hopped on the defensive train. "It hurts more when it's true" she mumbled under her breath but Hank heard her as he was walking behind her. "What did you say?" he stopped and looked at her. "Nothing" she said, her hands shaking slightly.

"You said something, what did you say?" he asked again. "I said it hurts more when it's true!" she snapped, standing up. Her words caught everyone off guard and Hank's eyes widened. "You...?" he trailed off and Lily looked down.

"Yeah, I killed someone. I've killed a lot of people, actually. Only two didn't deserve it" she replied before walking away, opening the curtain and stepping outside, looking up at the night sky.